Gods And Mortals
by ARCEUS-master
Summary: Being a god is hard and tiring, and Arceus knows that better than anyone, so he has finally decided to take some vacations. His temporary replacement? ... Well, ever wonder what Ash would do if he was god?
1. Even Gods Need Vacations

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

A/N: Well Fanfiction readers, I decided to start yet another fic! I hope you like this one and enjoy it! It's got a really interesting plotline (Or so I think). =D

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! =D

* * *

The Hall of Origin, the most beautiful place on earth and the residence of the gods, was located high above Mt. Coronet and the Spear Pillar, far beyond the reach of mortal ken. It was a tremendous palace the size of a medium-sized country colored a soft gold and done in Classical style with enormous pillars and friezes, beautiful statues of heroes, immortals, and legendary Pokémon, towering spires and cupolas, crystal towers and stained glass windows and carefully positioned mirrors that refracted light to constantly bathe the Hall in a multicolored aura of pure radiance. Among all the architectural masterpieces were awe-inspiring gardens with the most beautiful plants and flowers the world had ever seen, and many it never had. Fountains and more pillars and statuary filled these gardens, and a visitor could easily spend days wandering the gardens in bemused wonder. This place certainly deserved the title of "Heaven."

The massive vaulted chambers and corridors of the interior were floored with marvelous golden tiles and radiant pure white walls that made anyone who gazed upon them smile. The hallways were so long and big that they seemed endless. This place was the home to a mighty Pokémon, the god and creator of all things, Arceus. He had lived in this place ever since he created the universe, for a few billion years or so.

In the center of this magnificent palace, the Creator sighed and rose from his seat to walk around for a bit, exiting his palatial personal chamber and heading for the main chamber of the Hall of Origin. He had been getting a bit tired and bored as of late, always solving problems here and there, having no real company. Even if he did get visits from the other Legendary Pokémon from time to time, they were mostly there to complain about their duties or to say another Legend was doing something weird. It was rare for a Legend to pass by just to say hello.

And some of the Legendary Pokémon weren't helping much with his recent tiredness. For example, Palkia and Dialga got into a fight. _Again!_ And almost killed Darkrai in the process! Oh, and he had to make sure the two dimensions they used as their battleground didn't merge and trigger a mega-disaster. At least Palkia had been kind enough to have mercy and restore the poor town and its inhabitants that they had dragged to that horrible void between dimensions and almost disappeared with their battle-Alamos Town he believed was called—back to its proper place. He made a mental note to scold them for their antics.

That wasn't all. Groudon and Kyogre had gotten into a fight. _Again!_ Where the hell was Rayquaza! He had to make sure that the continent they battled on was still stable enough to support life, and to not get extreme climate changes after their battles, since they tended to mess up the surface of the planet with their battling. Why couldn't they get along? Apparently this time some humans were responsible for their fighting in the first place. And those were just two examples of fights between Legendary Pokémon, others were brewing all the time.

Ah right, and just a week ago Giratina _almost_ got killed. Oh great. Why? Some dumb human with a completely ridiculous obsession with her wearing a ridiculous Giratina-themed suit. He decided to try and steal her powers as ruler of the Reverse World, her personal dimension. Thankfully Shaymin was there to save her, and the same group of humans that always seemed to be around when Legendaries were getting into trouble, or were causing trouble in the first place, managed to save the day.

Arceus hoped that she wouldn't come and bitch about the matter to him later, she had a habit of doing that every time something happened. Maybe her meeting the boy that saved her had softened her up so she wouldn't come? _Maybe_. She was taking a while to arrive, but maybe she was still busy making repairs to her Reverse World or hunting down Dialga and Palkia to beat the crap out of them for causing all this trouble.

Due to all this, it was very likely that the delicate bond the Reverse World and the Regular World share was damaged. Sure, Giratina could heal any damage done to the Reverse World, but not to the bond. Arceus made a mental note to go there to see if everything was alright.

He shook his head. Ever since humans had become so technologically advanced, things had become a lot more hectic, and he was the one that had to ultimately make sure everything stayed fine. Being God was certainly not an easy task, and boy was it tiring.

He was starting to get stressed out from all this. Wait, can gods get stress? Well, apparently yes! And boy was it horrible! And now he wondered what was next.

Maybe the Legendary birds were getting into another fight and threatening the world balance, _again_. Maybe Kyogre might decide to sink a continent? Or maybe Groudon would do the opposite to that and randomly create a whole new continent? Or worst of all, Giratina would come to yell at him about her recent brush with death.

Arceus turned and walked to the main hall, wondering what to do. He was definitely going to go crazy if this kept up. He paused as he sensed a presence coming to the Hall of Origin. _'What now? I hope it's not Giratina…_' He thought, sighing. He was so not in the mood to deal with her.

The front doors burst open. "Hiya, Arcy!" a very childish and feminine voice called loudly, her playful voice echoing in the empty hall.

Arceus groaned. _'It's something far worse than an annoyed Giratina,'_ he thought as a certain pink kitten-like Legendary Pokémon with a long tail entered the hall, her baby blue eyes scanning the room in search for the God Pokémon. Out of all the Legendaries, Mew was the one that visited him the most just for fun, or to pass some time.

She soon spotted him and smiled brightly. "Hello Arcy!" she squealed, her voice carrying the perpetual sense of happiness she always seemed to have.

Arceus sighed, bemused by the nickname. Mew had the habit of making 'cute' nicknames for most Legendaries. Scratch that, _all _Legendaries had a cute nickname from Mew, including Arceus, the god Pokémon himself. "Mew, how many times have I told you not to call me that?"

"Arceus sounds boring and formal, Arcy is much better!" Mew said, doing a few twirls in the air.

Arceus couldn't help but smile a bit. Had any other legendary called him that he'd probably pulverize them on the spot, but Mew was the only legendary he simply couldn't deny. That and Mew could make anyone smile with her brightness and playfulness. "What are you doing here?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Well, I got tired of trying to get Mewtwo to play with me, the grouch. So I decided to get you to play with me!" Mew said, squealing happily.

Arceus shook his head. "Sorry Mew, I'm not in the mood…"

Mew pouted. "You're never in the mood. You never wanna do anything and always tell me to go play with another Legendary," the pink psychic-type commented. She then noticed that Arceus seemed a bit… off. Well, he was always serious and stern about everything, which was logical considering the importance of his duties, but… Arceus was never one to be sad or depressed, like he seemed to be now. "You seem a bit down. What's up Arcy?"

"Nothing's wrong Mew, go back to Earth and try to get another Legend to play with you," Arceus answered, turning back and walking towards his personal room. Why was Mew so playful again?

Mew teleported quickly in a small pink flash, appearing in front of Arceus. He stopped and looked at her. "Nope, I want to spend time with you! Besides, something's going on with you, don't cover it up," she chided, which sounded odd considering she was talking to the God Pokémon.

Arceus sighed. "Just thinking of the most recent events…"

Mew shook her head sadly. "Feeling down a little?"

"Just a bit stressed out," Arceus admitted. "Things have been a little chaotic these days."

"That sounds weird coming from you," Mew giggled. "I didn't know you could get stressed."

"Apparently, I can," Arceus said flatly.

"You need to take your mind off all this for a while," Mew suggested. "Come and play with me! That will make you feel better!"

"Sorry Mew, you know I'm not one for games," Arceus said apologetically.

"You really should take a break, Arcy," Mew said softly. "If you keep this up, it might really give you some mental problems later. You don't want to fall into complete depression. You've been doing this since the very beginning of everything, I think you should try something different for once. Everyone needs a change once in a while, even you," she said, nodding to herself in approval.

"Mew, this is my role. I am bound to this. I have to take care of my creation," Arceus countered. He smiled at the little pink legendary. "I'll be fine."

"I still say you should take your mind off all this," Mew suggested sweetly, giving him a cute smile. "Why don't you go to Earth and spend a few weeks there? I'm sure you'll enjoy spending time there. Take your mind off your duties for once!"

"That won't work Mew. Even if I leave this place for a while, I still have to watch over everything, so I'll still have the pressure of taking care of my creation," Arceus said with a frown. He had to admit that taking a break sounded like a great idea, but… that was off limits.

"Arceus, you can take a break. Get a vacation!" Mew suggested, smiling.

"I'd be pointless considering I still have to take care of everything, regardless of my location," Arceus reminded her.

"Why don't you leave someone else in charge?" Mew suggested, tilting her head to the side.

"No one but me has the power to take care of my creation. Besides, even if I did, what good would it do?" Arceus asked, looking down at Mew.

Mew smiled playfully. "Oh you have no idea what kind of fun you can have! Humans have invented some very interesting stuff in recent years. Since I'm one of the few Legendaries that can become human, I have lots of fun there!" she finished happily, doing a series of happy twirls and loops in the air, grinning playfully. She paused. "Well, at least when I can't get Mewtwo to play with me… which is almost all the time."

"Is that so?" Arceus said, looking at the pink Legendary skeptically.

"Is there a way for you to leave someone else in charge… even for a little while?" Mew asked. "And don't act all mysterious like you sometimes tend to be."

"Well Mew, there _is_ a way, but it's risky," Arceus began. "Only I have the powers to take care of the universe properly, but, if I were to give my powers to someone else, then that someone would be able to do my duties... thought I'd take their place. Basically we'd switch minds."

"Pick me! Pick me!" Mew squealed happily, raising her hand while hoping up and down.

"Sorry Mew, but I can't. You already have your own things to worry about, if I were to switch with you, that could severe the very delicate and intimate bond you share with your home, the Tree of Beginning," Arceus said, causing Mew to moan in disappointment. "The same goes for all the other Legendaries, I can't take their places and neither can they take mine."

"What about a lesser creature? Like a non-Legendary Pokémon or a human?" Mew asked.

"They might work," Arceus admitted. "But most would be corrupted by the sheer amount of power my position has. You'd have to find someone exceptionally pure-hearted for this to work."

Mew grinned, getting an idea. "What if I find someone that wouldn't be? Someone you could trust your position to?"

"Well…I don't know. I'm not sure I want to become a mortal," Arceus said doubtfully.

Mew smiled softly. "I think it would do you a world of good. It would give you an entirely different life to try, a chance to meet interesting new people and Pokémon. I could show you 'how to have fun' Mew-style…there are tons of things you can do!"

"Is there even someone in this world that wouldn't take advantage of my position and its powers?" Arceus wondered skeptically.

Mew grinned. "Of course there is! If I find someone who would be perfect for the job, would you accept, Arcy?"

Arceus hummed in thought, heavily pondering the situation. "I guess…it would be something interesting to try," he admitted.

"Yay!" Mew squealed happily. "So, when I find the individual, what will you do?"

"Well," Arceus. "I'll watch him for several days to see if he is good enough for this, and while I do that, I'll also make sure all is well in the universe so that whoever takes my place doesn't have any problems. This is assuming, of course, _if_ you find someone… which somehow I doubt."

Mew smirked. "You don't know who you're talking to. I might surprise you. I'll start searching right away. Take care, Arcy!" she said as she got ready to Teleport away.

"Wait, Mew," Arceus said, stopping her.

"Yes?" the small pink Legendary asked, pausing.

"May I ask why you are so eager to do this?" Arceus asked.

"Even gods need vacations Arcy," Mew chided lovingly. "And you seem like you really need one., Don't worry, I'll make sure you enjoy it." She Teleported away with a small pink flash.

…

Mew appeared in the middle of a forest in the Sinnoh Region in a small pink flash (What? She likes pink flashes), startling a few Starlies that were roosting in a nearby tree. They quickly recognized her and bowed in respect. She was one of the world's most powerful legendaries, after all. She giggled at the sign of respect and winked at them, causing the Starlies to blush. Did I forget to mention that Mew was one of the prettiest legendaries too?

Mew turned and flew in the direction of the closest town. Unbeknownst to Arceus, she already had someone in mind to take his place. _'Hehhee, Arcy will be so shocked!' _she thought giddily. She paused. _'Or maybe he said he'd go through with this because he knew I had someone in mind?'_ _Or maybe he didn't know and I'm thinking about this too much?_' She paused again. _'I'm confused…Anyway, I hope the little human I have in mind hasn't changed since I last saw him in my Tree of Beginning. Ash, let's see where you are,' _she thought as she flew towards the city. Her eyes glowed a soft pink as she extended her psychic senses as far as she could, easily covering a large part of the region, searching for the individual she had in mind.

She located him rather quickly. _'Found you!'_ she mentally cooed. She sensed him in a clearing on the route towards Hearthome City a few miles away. She quickly Teleported, appearing inside the forest near the clearing, making sure to keep herself hidden. She peeked over the bushes she was hiding in to get a better view.

There were three humans, two of whom she recognized from her previous meetings with the group, Brock and Ash. The third was unfamiliar. _'She's probably a new traveling companion.' _The group was having a picnic, enjoying their meal and talking, laughing occasionally. A dozen or so Pokémon were eating and chatting among each other happily as well. The mood around the group was a happy and carefree one. Mew smiled at it.

Her eyes glowed as she read Ash's mind gently, making sure he didn't feel her intrusion even in the slightest. He kept eating, not noticing a thing.

She smiled. He was still pretty much the same boy that she remembered. She was also slightly surprised that he had met almost every single Legendary in existence, including Pokémon like Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. _'Wow… he helped _save_ Giratina's life just a week ago?' _Mew thought, clearly impressed._ 'This will make him look good in Arcy's eyes.'_

She was glad he hadn't changed much. She remembered how she had first met him about four years ago when the humans had somehow managed to clone her. She wondered how they could have gotten a sample of her DNA. She had been to almost every part of the world, so she could have left a hair or something. The boy had helped calm her clone and get him to see life in a new way, even if it involved putting his life in severe danger. Now Mewtwo was Mew's favorite way to pass the time (When she got him to play with her).

The next time she had seen him was a few months ago when he entered her Tree of Beginning, and in an attempt to save his life she put her own in severe danger. Once again, the boy was willing to sacrifice his life to save her and her home, though Lucario had taken his place at the very last second.

And with her recent reading of his mind, she now had learned of all his meetings with Legendary Pokémon and his adventures with them. He was a truly wonderful human. _'Arcy will like him, I know it,'_ Mew thought. _'Though he isn't the…smartest human around, he'll do good. I'm sure me and Arcy can get around that, and besides, if he does do the exchange with Arcy, he'll be too awed by his powers to try to use them wrongly. This is perfect!' _With a smile she Teleported away, leaving Ash and his friends with no clue they had been watched by a Legendary Pokémon.

…

Arceus stood in his Hall patiently, waiting for Mew to get back. He somehow knew that it wouldn't take her long since she probably already had someone in mind. Typical Mew. True to his thoughts, Mew reappeared in a bright pink flash. "I'm baaaaaack!" she squealed… and was surprised to find that Arceus hadn't moved since she left. "You knew I was gonna get back soon didn't you?" Mew stated , looking at the God Pokémon. To her dismay, he nodded. "Figures."

"This ought to be interesting," Arceus commented as he walked to the edge of the room. He looked at the center of the room as his red eyes glowed. The wheel on his midsection also glowed a bright and celestial gold.

"Pretty lights," Mew commented, staring at Arceus with a dazed expression. Arceus sweatdropped. "Sooooo shiny…"

The center of the room faded away and was replaced by a holographic 3D image of Sinnoh. Arceus' eyes stopped glowing, but the four gems on the wheel kept glowing, most likely powering the hologram. "So, Mew," Arceus said. Mew blinked and shook her head, regaining her composure. "Direct this dimensional viewscreen to your chosen candidate."

"Okiedokie!" Mew exclaimed as her eyes glowed softly. The holographic screen directed itself at Mew's command, quickly focusing over a road that led to Hearthome City, more precisely, a clearing where a group of humans were eating.

"So, which of them is the one you had in mind?" Arceus asked, looking at the pretty much normal and unassuming group of humans and Pokémon.

"That one!" Mew said, pointing to where Ash was sitting, munching on some sandwiches.

"I think I've seen him before…" Arceus muttered. "Oh yeah, he's that kid that's always messing around with Legendaries."

Mew sweatdropped. "Well, I myself have run across him two times in the past. He's a really wonderful human, he'll be a good person to take your place while you take your break."

"Couldn't you get a smarter human?" Arceus asked, looking down at the Psychic Legendary.

"Aw, I'm sure he'll enjoy being in your place! Besides, he has a very pure heart and soul. He'll do a wonderful job," Mew said, looking back to the dimensional viewer. She saw how the group finished eating and decided to have some fun, beginning to play with their Pokémon.

"Okay Mew, I'll take your word for it," Arceus conceded.

"Yay!" the pink Legendary squealed, bouncing in the air happily. "So, what's next Arcy?"

"Well, like I said before, I'll watch him for a few days and then make my choice," he answered.

"Isn't that stalking?" Mew questioned, looking at the God Pokémon suspiciously.

"No," Arceus replied flatly.

"Okay, but, what am I supposed to do until then?" Mew wondered.

"I don't know, find something to keep you entertained," Arceus advised. He turned and looked at his dimensional viewer.

"Aww," Mew whined, disappointed. Her stomach grumbled. "I'm hungry… that means it's CANDY TIME!" she squealed excitedly before Teleporting away. Arceus sweatdropped.

* * *

And so, for several days, Arceus observed Ash's travels from the Hall of Origin. Watching the boy's carefree adventures certainly proved to be entertaining. The kid was one of those Pokémon trainers that seemed to be getting so popular lately. He also had an interesting ability to bond with his Pokémon, seeing how much effort he put into beating a Gym Leader at Hearthome City, teaching them a unique defensive style called the "Counter-Shield". All the time he dedicated to his Pokémon just so they could overcome this challenge was amazing.

At some point, Arceus decided that he wanted to know the boy a bit more; so, he switched to his Psychic form and read the boy's mind. Arceus smiled in bemusement at the fact that the boy had so many adventures with Legendary Pokémon, as that meant that he would be a good temporary replacement for him since he'd have some experience dealing with Legendaries (Which wasn't an easy thing).

So, Arceus made up his mind. He'd switch places with the boy, though he wondered what he could do in the boy's place. Keep up his journey? Mew had said she was going to make sure he enjoyed his little break. He wondered what Mew would put him through as a human, maybe teach him all that "fun stuff" she said humans had made in the most recent years? That could be it. Right now day was turning into night, and the human was getting ready to go to sleep. He was setting his tent up along with the other two humans. Once they separated and went to their individual tents, it'd be a perfect time to summon him to the Hall of Origin.

Arceus smiled as he powered down his dimensional viewer, causing it to fade into a shower of white lights that dissipated into the air. Now he just had to wait for Mew to get back. She came to visit him often to ask if he had made his choice, so it shouldn't take long. "Hello Arcy!" A voice rang through the halls. Yep, didn't take her long.

"Greetings Mew," Arceus said, nodding at Mew as she entered the room. The pink Legendary floated over to the God Pokémon, munching on a Chocolate bar. She quickly stuffed the rest in her mouth, smearing fudge all over her pink fur. Arceus frowned at her dietary choice.

"So Arcy, did you make your choice?" Mew asked, looking at the Alpha Pokémon expectantly, her long tail curling in excitement. _'Please say yes! We'll have so much fun together!'_

"Yes I did, Mew," Arceus answered. "I still don't know how you talked me into this, but yes."

"YAY!" Mew cried happily, doing incredibly fast spins in the air. Arceus smiled at her cheerful demeanor. She was suddenly a few feet away from his face, causing him to recoil in surprise. "So, when will you do this!"

"Now, I guess," Arceus answered a little nervously, which came off weird seeing as he was God.

"Don't be nervous Arcy!" Mew chided. "This new life you're going to try is awesome! You've spent too much time trapped as God, now its time for you to try a new life, even if just for a few weeks. You'll enjoy it; I'll make sure of it!"

"Sure," Arceus replied, wondering what Mew was planning.

"So, how will this work?" the New Species Pokémon asked, eying Arceus.

"Well, we will basically switch bodies. His soul and mind will be transferred to my body while my soul and mind will transfer to his," Arceus answered. "However, I will take a few 'precautions.'"

"Which are…?" Mew asked.

"While my powers and body will allow the boy's soul to command them, they can't harm me, and I can return to my rightful body whenever I wish," Arceus answered. "Also, should there be a situation of grave importance, I'll know it immediately and be able to return to my body in a second. That way I'd still be taking care of thing here, despite being away."

"Okay, sounds about right," Mew agreed. "So, do I bring him here?"

"I'll bring him," Arceus said as his wheel glowed with a holy golden light.

Suddenly, a small ball of light appeared before them, fading to reveal the figure of a sleeping human. He yawned. "Who turned the lights on? Is it morning already?" Ash asked aloud, rubbing his eyes. Weird, he didn't remember his sleeping bag being so rough…

"_It's still night, and as for the lights, it's because you happen to be in the palace of God," _a feminine telepathic voice said in his mind, giggling softly.

"Ah, okay," Ash muttered before falling back to sleep, searching for a pillow to put over his eyes. Wait… where was his pillow! The voice burst into full blown laughter. _'Wait…palace of God...'_ Ash's eyes shot open as he forced himself to sit up, only to close them from the intense light. "Oww… Too bright…"

"_Don't worry, you'll get used to it,"_ the telepathic voice said tenderly.

"Who are you?" Ash asked, still rubbing his eyes.

"_Open your eyes and see if you remember me,"_ she cooed, smiling gently.

Ash slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the change of light. He was surprised to meet a pair of baby blue eyes. _"Hi!"_ Mew greeted telepathically, tackling Ash into a hug.

"Wow, Mew?" Ash said, shocked at seeing the pink Legendary again. He hugged her back, returning her sign of affection.

"_So you do remember me,"_ Mew commented, giggling.

"You can do telepathy?" Ash asked. "Why didn't you use it the last two times we met?"

"_It was more fun if you couldn'__t understand me,"_ Mew said casually. She flew back and smiled.

"That's weird," Ash commented. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Mew."

"_Likewise,"_ Mew agreed.

"Ahem," a voice interrupted them. Ash turned to the source of the voice and was mesmerized to see the most majestic Pokémon he had ever seen in his entire life towering over him.

"Wow," a completely awestruck Ash said. He reached for his PokeDex, but found that it wasn't with him.

"Greetings Ash," Arceus said formally.

Ash didn't know how, but he somehow understood the Pokémon perfectly. It wasn't exactly a regular voice, nor was it telepathy, but something else…it seemed to resonate with his heart, spreading warmth through Ash's body from the simple sound of his gentle voice. "H-hello," Ash said timidly.

"_Ash, let me introduce you to Arceus, the God Pokémon,"_ Mew said, smiling as she perched on Ash's shoulder.

"G-God?" Ash asked weakly.

"_Yup,"_ Mew replied, giggling at Ash's stunned expression.

"It's an h-honor to meet you," Ash said, never taking his amazed gaze off Arceus.

"_Yay, now we all know each other!"_ Mew squealed.

"So, w-why am I here?" Ash asked, still shaking nervously.

"No need to be anxious," Arceus said, smiling. "I would like to ask something from you."

"Me?" Ash repeated, wondering what Arceus could possibly want with him.

"You see, Mew somehow convinced me to take a small 'break' from my duties, but I have to leave someone here to temporarily replace me. I wanted to ask if you could be that replacement," Arceus explained, looking down at the human.

"You mean…" Ash started.

"_Yep, he wants you to be __God for a while,"_ Mew explained.

"W-Wow…" Ash stammered. "Really?"

"Yes," Arceus answered.

"But…Why me?" Ash asked, utterly amazed by what he was been asked to do.

"_You are the best candidate__. You have a noble heart and pure soul, perfect for the job," Mew_ answered. _"Though… I do admit you aren't the smartest one around…"_

"Hey!" Ash said. "I can be smart when I want to!"

"No, you can't," Arceus and Mew said flatly at the same time. Ash sulked.

"So, do you agree to do this?" Arceus asked.

"Before I answer, I have three questions," Ash began. At Arceus' nod, he said, "What about my journey and friends?"

"You will replace me here, and I will replace you. I will continue your journey as best as I can. I _am_ curious as to what it feels to be something other than God," Arceus admitted. "And while I'm at it, I believe Mew has some interesting ideas, so we'll see what she has in mind."

"Yay! I get to spend time with Arcy! I get to spend time with Arcy! I get to spend time with Arcy!" Mew squealed, doing a happy dance in midair.

"Okay… so, for how long will this last?" Ash asked.

"Depends. It could be a few days, or weeks, I'm not certain. If you want to return to your rightful self, feel free to tell me, I'll understand," Arceus answered.

"And… If I take over for you…I could do whatever I want right? But, how would I know how to do your job?" Ash asked.

"You may do whatever you want so long as it doesn't bring harm to anyone or damage to the world. You'll get a small portion of my knowledge so you can know what to do and how to use my powers," Arceus answered.

"I see. This is simply…amazing…I get to be God…" Ash muttered, slowly realizing what he was being asked to do.

"So, do you agree?" Arceus asked.

"Yes, it'd be my honor," Ash answered.

Mew smiled and hugged Ash. _"Thanks!"_

"You're welcome ,Mew," Ash said, smiling at her. "So…how do we…change places with each other?" Ash asked.

"Oh! Things like this are usually shiny!" Mew squealed, her eyes glowing as she Teleported some popcorn into her paws. She began to eat, watching them expectantly. Arceus and Ash stared at her oddly.

"Anyway," Arceus said, getting Ash's attention. "Just look into my eyes," he instructed as his red eyes began to glow.

Ash nodded and looked into Arceus' eyes. He felt lightheaded as he stared into Arceus' intense gaze, his eyes seeming to spin as they glowed powerfully. Ash experienced a feeling of warmth and happiness spread over him. He felt his mind go blank for a second, well, blanker than normal. The next thing he knew…he felt odd. Why was he standing on four legs?

Ash blinked and looked around, noticing how he felt… taller. He looked down and saw… himself? Well, it was his human body. Okay. This was getting weird.

"Hmm, feels odd," Arceus commented, looking at his now human body. "Ugh, this head is way too small. How can you live with it?"

"Hey!" Ash said. "Well… Err… Your head is big?" Arceus rolled his now-human eyes.

"Aww! What happened? When a god and a mortal switch places, shouldn't there be some kind of shiny day-long ritual where if a single thing goes wrong it can result in a mega disaster? And why wasn't it even shiny in the first place!" Mew rambled. Arceus and Ash stared at her for several odd hour-long seconds. She blushed in embarrassment.

"Well Ash, how does it feel to be me?" Arceus asked, gazing up at him.

"It feels…odd. I definitely need to get used to it," Ash commented, looking at himself.

Arceus chuckled. "You do that, and please…don't make me regret this."

"Oh I won't! I promise it Arceus… this is amazing!" Ash said, giddy over his new powers.

Arceus yawned. "Why do I feel so tired?"

"It's the human's bedtime," Mew answered. "You should go and get some sleep."

Arceus nodded. "Alright…a rest to get used to our new forms would do us both good. Anyway Ash, tomorrow you begin your duties as God."

"And you begin your duties as me. Try to keep up," Ash said teasingly.

"Oh, I'll do more than try," Arceus agreed.

"And you'll love being a human Arcy. Imagine all the fun stuff we can do! There are carnivals, fairs, and many more things that humans do to have fun! I'll make sure you enjoy it," Mew said, smiling at Arceus.

"I know you will Mew," Arceus said, smiling._ 'I just hope I live through it…'_

"Hey! I heard that," Mew pouted. Arceus chuckled.

"Well let's get some rest," Arceus commented.

Mew's eyes glowed. "I'll take you back to Ash's group." Arceus nodded as Mew Teleported them away with a pink flash, leaving Ash all by himself in the Hall or Origin.

Ash looked around. He walked back to Arceus' palatial room to get some rest and to get time to go through the knowledge that Arceus had left within his mind.

Yup. Tomorrow was going to be a _very_ nice day. Besides, how hard could being God be?

* * *

And Chapter 1 is over! I hope you all enjoy this fic I've decided to start. It'll basically divide into two separate storylines, one following Arceus as Ash, and the other Ash as Arceus. Who shall have more success? Only time will tell! And yes, it's cheating if you go and ask Celebi or Dialga, you'll have to wait.

Anyway, be kind and leave a **REVIEW**! XD


	2. Experiencing A New Lifestyle

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

A/N: Here I am with this Fanfic's second chapter! At last! =D!

Well, sorry for taking too long on getting this chapter done, but as many of you noticed, I was focused on getting A New Chance at Life finished. Even after that, I've been really busy, and it seems like I'll only get even busier, sad to say. Until then, you have this, and the teaser chapter for A New Chance at Life's sequel.

Also, I'd like to thank **Ri2** for all the help he gives me in my Fanfics, just like A New Chance at Life. He too is my Beta Reader for this story. Many thanks, my friend!

So for now, enjoy this chapter!

* * *

After a rather enjoyable night's rest, the now mortal Arceus woke up, stirring slightly in the sleeping bag he was in. He groggily rubbed his eyes, adjusting to the whole new feeling of waking up as a mortal. It was a very unusual sensation since he rarely slept in the first place, he usually only did it once every few thousand years or so to recharge his massive powers. And mortals had to do this all the time? It seemed like such a waste of time that could be spent doing other things. Their lifespans were limited enough as it was, and it seemed like they spent at least half of it sleeping! How inefficient. Why had he designed them like that again? He was sure there'd been a reason at the time, but it escaped him now. _'Looks like I'm stuck doing it as well,'_ he thought ruefully to himself. At least that rest was good for getting his mind off all his duties as God, and allowed him to sleep peacefully knowing someone else was taking care of it. He continued lying down in the sleeping bag, looking up at the 'roof' of the tent he was in with a far off and thoughtful look in his eyes.

After a few minutes passed, he sighed. He was still amazed that somehow Mew had talked him into trying the life of a mortal. He was certainly curious as to how it would go. Thankfully, he knew everything about Ash from reading his mind earlier when he was deciding to exchange duties with him. He knew his likes, dislikes, mannerisms, and just about everything else. _'Acting like him so people don't suspect a thing is going to be…very hard,'_ he thought, shaking his head with a frown. Sure he knew how Ash behaved, but mimicking him was near impossible, especially with Arceus being used to acting stern and serious over everything while Ash was nearly the complete opposite…as well as being kind of an idiot.

Arceus suppressed a chuckle. _'Okay, all I have to do is I act like a mindless fourteen year old kid. How hard can that be?' _he thought to himself, mentally reassuring himself of his success. He smiled and went through Ash's memories again quickly to make sure he got everything right, trying to make sure any comment his human friends made wouldn't take him by surprise.

Arceus smiled and decided to take a look around, he slowly crawled to the end of the tent so as not to wake Pikachu up, quietly unzipped the exit, and gradually stepped outside, looking around and noticing it was still very early as the sun was barely poking over the horizon, he smiled, enjoying the rather wonderful view. It was odd how everything felt without his godly senses, like the world held a great degree of surprise and spontaneity. As a god, he could easily sense everything happening around him,_ everything_, leaving no room for surprises, he could anticipate everything. Now, he felt as if anything could happen at any moment and he would not see it coming. Arceus found himself…oddly excited by this prospect. _'Being a mortal feels so… different… a lot more so than I had expected…'_ he thought in astonishment, still looking around with a surprised look on his face.

He walked to the edge of the clearing and gazed out at the beautiful landscape, enjoying the view of the sun coming out to bathe the Sinnoh region in its wonderful heat and the light of a new day. He chuckled lowly at the irony, at how different it was between being a god and a mortal. As a god, nothing could really surprise him, aside from Mew's regular and near unpredictable antics. It helped that she too was a powerful goddess and could find ways to do the strangest of things without other's senses making out her plans, and maybe a few other childish Legendaries' antics, though they were not as good as Mew at it, but _now _as a mortal… he felt as if even the slightest chirping of a Starly could surprise him.

"Hiya Arcy!" A cheerful voice shouted from behind him. Okay, that was no chirping Starly, it was something probably worse.

"Ahh!" Arceus cried in surprise as he jumped slightly, causing him to stumble, losing his balance and falling to his side, astonished that he was spooked so easily. It was lessened when he remembered that as a simple mortal, there was no way he could have sensed the perpetrator coming close, unlike when he was a god, where he could usually sense Mew coming from a mile away (unless she was extremely careful). He reluctantly admitted that he enjoyed the scare, it was such a new feeling to not know everything in your surroundings in advance.

Mew giggled happily, nodding to herself in approval, her long tail twitching between fits of laughter. "Aw, was little Arcy scared?" she asked teasingly, hovering down so she was eye level with him, a tender and cute smile on her face.

"Apparently, yes," Arceus muttered, adjusting himself into a comfortable sitting position, crossing his legs while facing the rising sun.

Mew giggled. "You look cute in pajamas," she commented, her voice full of mirth.

"They're just common sleeping clothes Mew, a plain shirt and shorts," Arceus corrected.

"They're still Pajamas to me," Mew said cheerfully.

"Even so, since I'm in Ash's body, that means it's Ash who's the one that looks cute in pajamas, not me," Arceus countered.

"It looks even cuter knowing _who_ is behind the cute pajama boy, _Arcy_," Mew commented teasingly. Arceus looked nervous, maybe even blushing slightly. It seemed that being a human also tuned down Arceus' emotions. Expressing feelings as a Human would be a lot easier than it was as a god, since as a god he have nearly perfect control over his emotions. As a human? Not so much. That caused Mew to start laughing openly. "So, how does it feel being a human?"

"This is all so weird…" he answered, still somewhat confused by his limited perception of the world compared to yesterday when he had still been God, and the weird way he felt both mentally and physically, maybe even restrained...

"Yeah, I know," Mew said back. "I also have powerful senses, though not as good as yours. Since my duties as a Legendary aren't very stressful, unlike yours that require you to have complete knowledge of the world at every moment, I can completely shut them down whenever I want to so I can experience what you are experiencing, the feelings and surprises the world has to offer without prior knowledge of them," she said, smiling softly at him. "It may not sound like much to many, but when you experience it, it can be thrilling, especially for deities like us."

"Yeah, it completely took me off guard…" Arceus agreed, nodding. "I may actually enjoy this."

"Oh, you will, you will," Mew promised, smiling happily, causing Arceus to feel the need to fear for his life. "Though you'll have to stay with Ash's friends for now. We'll get some free time later."

"Yes, we had better keep this a secret from them unless I want them bugging me asking stuff about 'What does being God feel like' and 'Make my dreams come true' or irritating requests like that," Arceus commented.

"Yeah, good idea. So, are there any other implications to the exchange I don't know about?" Mew asked, curious.

"Just a few. I omitted mentioning them to Ash because I really doubt he'd understand fully some of them. I left him some small thoughts as to some general things he can't do though, just in case he wants to have fun and wonders if what he's about to do will get him in trouble with me later on," Arceus answered.

Mew laughed. "Let me guess, one of your _huge_ 'rules are important' rants?"

Arceus chuckled. "A bit… just a bit… well, no, it's really small but makes the important points really clear. Aside from that, I transferred a tiny portion of my powers into this body, just in case."

Mew nodded. "Alright, though, you should really keep them inactive, I can sense them easily."

Arceus frowned. "You can? It was supposed to be undetectable to everyone…"

"Yeah, any Pokémon would immediately know who you are. And you're supposed to keep this a secret?" Mew shook her head slowly and suppressed a fit of giggles. "Looks like you made a small miscalculation. Even those without any special senses could feel who you really are."

"That can't be good," Arceus said dryly. "Well, do you think you can suppress it? Leave them inactive for now so they can't be sensed and I appear as a much normal human… as normal as Ash is, anyways. That way I'll only be able to draw upon them should the need arise."

Mew laughed. "With such a small amount of your power, it's not like it can do much," she commented teasingly.

"It was the most I could get into this body without harming it," Arceus countered. "Besides, it's just for self defense, not to check up the world or alter the fabric of reality or something that big."

"Alright, alright," Mew said, admitting the logic behind his words. She glided forward and gently touched Arceus' chest with her paw, her eyes glowing a soft pink. "Done. No one can sense that bit of powers and while inactive you are a common little mortal. They're 'dormant' for now," she paused. "As common as Ash could get anyways… hehe," she finished, laughing nervously.

"That's good. In case something happens and the situation gets dangerous, I can activate them for a short while to get to safety," Arceus said, nodding.

"Though, if you do that, it'll be as if you had a huge 'I'm the god, Arceus' neon sign flashing vividly over you," Mew joked, laughing at the mental image.

"Yeah, it'd make my identity obvious…" Arceus lamented. "Let's hope it never comes to that."

"Yeah…" Mew agreed.

Arceus hummed. "I wonder what Ash is doing right now," he muttered.

"Sleeping, probably," Mew guessed. "Want me to go and check up on him when his friends wake up and I can't be around?"

"Yes please, it'd put me at ease," Arceus said. "Usually the first few hours will be the most exciting for him as that's when he will act all outgoing and happy over my powers. He'll calm down and think things through a bit more when he settles down… I just hope he doesn't do anything damaging in that state…"

Mew giggled. "Hey, don't worry! He'll do a terrific job as God, no need to be alarmed Arcy, have faith in him!" she chided, smiling lovingly.

"He may have knowledge on what to do and how to use my powers, but can he handle the task emotionally? My position can be overwhelming sometimes," Arceus wondered, looking at Mew out the corner of his eye.

"I think he'll do fine," Mew answered. "Though, I admit he may have some problems on some decisions though, mainly due to limited experience or the way he emotionally handles the task…"

"Should I have assigned him some advisors?" Arceus asked, thinking about this.

"Probably, it would really help him, plus he'd enjoy the company as he's not used to being alone, even as God, and … oh, pick me! Pick me! Pick me!" Mew said happily over and over again, hovering a bit higher and bouncing up and down happily in the air with a broad smile as she thought of what she could do if she was God's personal advisor.

"Mew, you'd be a terrible advisor and you know it," Arceus said flatly.

Mew crossed her arms and huffed. "What's the worse I could do?"

"You'd beg Ash to eliminate all healthy food from the universe and leave only sweets, for starters, and that's not the worst thing you could do, I'm sure," Arceus commented, thinking of the Psychic Legendary's well known addiction to candy.

Mew grinned cheerily. "Candy is awesome! Even more when Humans begin to mass produce it in tons of creative ways and … Oops… I just burned any chances I had, didn't I?" she said, to her dismay. Arceus nodded. "So, who would you suggest Arcy?" Mew asked, looking down at him, which felt odd considering Arceus was usually the towering figure. Well, technically, she was still smaller than Arceus even now since physically she was smaller than most Humans, but power-wise, it was another story, at least for now. She hovered back to eye level with him.

"Okay… how about Rayquaza? He's a wise, mature and responsible Legendary," Arceus suggested.

"Na, he's also the number one grouch in the world. He even outgrumps Mewtwo, and that's only because Mewtwo is just three years old and Rayquaza is one million two hundred thousand and something years old," Mew answered back.

Arceus laughed a little. "True… He'd get annoyed at Ash's cheerful demeanor quickly, plus, if I recall he was one of the few Legends that didn't really pay much attention to Ash when they met," Arceus agreed.

"Also, that puts Mewtwo out of the question, he's too young and inexperienced in manners of Legendary Pokémon for the job, despite his great power…has he even gone to talk to you so you can give him a Legendary Status and a purpose in the world?" Mew asked.

"No, he hasn't," Arceus answered.

"You really should have a word with him about that. He's really bored and constantly brooding over not having a purpose in life," Mew advised.

"Mew, I told you to tell him I wanted to see him in the Hall of Origin about two years ago, and you forgot about it because halfway to where he was you found a carnival and decided to hang out there," Arceus deadpanned. "And you only went to see me again a few days ago."

Mew turned a deep shade of red from pure embarrassment. "I knew I had forgotten something important…"

Arceus shook his head, chuckling in amusement. "Next time you see him, tell him to go and see Ash, I'm sure he can think up a nice job for him. If he can't, I'll do it later."

"Why didn't you summon him yourself?" Mew asked curiously.

"Because he's very distrustful of those he doesn't know. If you told him before, he'd be more willing to trust me because he'd know you trust me too," Arceus answered. "And he'd be more accepting of my words."

"More like, even if you're the God Pokémon, he might see it as an offence to his questioned existence and might even think you're some kind of super evil Pokémon god that thinks he must be erased from reality or something like that for the good of the Pokémon world as we know it," Mew ranted while making a paranoid expression.

"Just where do you get all those crazy ideas?" Arceus asked in bewilderment, staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't watch too much human TV," Mew lied immediately.

Arceus shook his head in amusement. "Oh well…" he muttered, suppressing a laugh.

Mew decided to return to the subject at hand. "Alright, who else? Groudon and Kyogre?"

"They'd advise Ash to destroy each other," Arceus muttered in irritation.

Mew laughed. "I can just picture that."

"They've asked me to destroy each other many times in the past, it's nothing new to me," Arceus deadpanned. He smiled. "Hey, what about Ho-Oh and Lugia?"

"Hm, they're good choices," Mew admitted. "They made Ash their little chosen human, and Lugia has met and talked to him in the past. Ho-Oh just stalks him instead of actually trying to rightfully meet him though…"

Arceus laughed. "She does what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Mew said quickly, shaking her head rapidly, denying her earlier statement.

"Well, they're good for the task. Both are very responsible, know Ash well, don't have any feuds with other legends to take advantage of while being Ash's advisors, and both sometimes have parental tendencies over younger legends. They won't be annoyed by Ash's antics because they often have to deal with their own legendary trios…they're perfect for the job!" Arceus smiled. "Could you notify them later today, Mew?"

Mew nodded. "Sure," she said, but frowned. "How do you think they'll take the news?"

"I don't know. I'm sure they'll understand. They've taken vacations from their own duties in the past," Arceus answered. "I think Lugia even made a family one time…"

"Well, I'll go and tell them later today," Mew said.

Arceus smiled and looked out towards the sun, noticing it was starting to rise fully over the horizon, casting a beautiful morning glow. He began to anxiously await the moment he'd interact with Ash's friends. Despite knowing a lot about them from reading Ash's mind, he was still wondering how he'd live up to Ash's self and personality. "Pretty isn't it?" Arceus asked, looking at the sunrise.

"Yeah," Mew agreed. She frowned and looked towards the tents. "Seems Brock's woken up. I better go, I'll be getting myself some candy in the meantime, I'm hungry…" she said as a grin slowly formed on her face.

"You should eat healthier," Arceus reprimanded, crossing his arms in a scolding manner.

Mew smiled and looked innocently at him. "Nope! I'm a goddess, I can eat whatever I want," Mew said firmly. She paused and giggled as an idea struck her.

"What's with the random giggling?" Arceus asked, confused.

"Brock's gonna get a nice laugh when he asks why you're up so early in the morning… and why you're _still_ in pajamas while outside the tent," Mew answered, laughing harder.

Arceus grimaced at the idea. "Err, some help here Mew, please?" he pleaded.

Mew nodded as her eyes glowed. In a split second, she exchanged Arceus's pajamas for Ash's regular traveling clothes. "There," she said, smiling down at him. He smiled back at her in gratitude. "Bye for now!" she said before teleporting elsewhere.

"Bye!" Arceus said as she left. He smiled once Mew left and prepared to get up…

"Hiya Arcy!" Mew said happily as she teleported inches away from his face, causing him to fall back in surprise. Mew started laughing happily while telepathically yelling 'I pranked Arcy! I pranked Arcy!' over and over again.

"I'll get you for that…" Arceus muttered in irritation. Mew grinned happily at him and teleported away again.

Arceus got up and dusted himself off, and walked back to the campsite to see Ash's friend Brock emerging from the tent. Brock looked at him. "Hi Ash," he greeted warmly. "Good morning!"

"Hey Brock!" Arceus greeted, imitating Ash's usual happy and carefree looks.

"Hmm…" Brock stared intently and suspiciously at him.

Arceus froze. _'What? He discovered me so fast?'_ he thought in astonishment.

"Ash, why are you up so early in the morning? Usually Pikachu wakes you up," Brock asked, still staring quizzically at the teenage trainer.

"Oh, I couldn't sleep, had a tough night," Arceus improvised quickly, trying to make it sound as natural and true as possible.

"Alright," Brock conceded, turning to the tents to get what he needed to make breakfast.

"Ash?" a voice called. Arceus turned to see Pikachu frantically exiting from the tent, looking around and relaxing when he spotted him. He ran up to Ash. "Hey! What's up with you waking up early?" he asked in curiosity. Ash waking up early all by himself was as believable as a Snorlax with insomnia.

Arceus crouched. "Hey, buddy," he greeted, petting the Electric-type gently. "Well, I had a tough night, I couldn't sleep well," he answered, repeating the same excuse.

Pikachu narrowed his eyes and looked at him suspiciously. "Hmm…"

Arceus froze. _'What? Not again…' _he thought, slightly annoyed.

"Something's a bit… off. Are you feeling okay?" Pikachu asked in concern. For some reason, Ash seemed… different, he couldn't really put his paw on it but, he just _knew_ it.

"Sorry, just couldn't sleep well, that's all," Arceus continued, he knew he had to answer as Ash could understand Pikachu very well, and some of his other Pokémon to a lesser degree.

Pikachu nodded. "Alright," he said, dismissing it for now.

Arceus sighed in relief. He decided to continue the talk, like he knew Ash would. "So, how was your night?"

"Fine," Pikachu answered. "I slept calm and peacefully."

"That's good to hear," Arceus said.

"Except I had the strangest dream that you disappeared in the middle of the night and magically reappeared some time later," Pikachu commented.

Arceus laughed nervously. Damn, he'd thought everyone had been asleep when he'd taken Ash! "Well, uh, I'll talk to Brock, he must have done something funny with your dinner," he said quickly.

Pikachu nodded. "Yeah, he's been experimenting with spices and flavors again…which is okay sometimes, but other times it leaves me feeling a little sick. Still, at least it's not as bad as May's attempts at cooking for Pokémon."

"Yeah, good thing!" Arceus said, nodding rapidly.

"Good morning everyone!" Dawn cheered happily, emerging from her own tent while arranging her hat a little to make sure it was placed perfectly, her Piplup walking behind her.

"Good morning!" Brock and Arceus answered.

Dawn smiled at them, she frowned when she saw Ash. "You're awake already? That's kinda shocking. Well, not as shocking as Pikachu actually electrifying you, but you know what I mean."

"I know… everyone's being saying that," Arceus said, faking embarrassment.

"Hmm…" Dawn hummed, narrowing her eyes at him and staring suspiciously. Arceus didn't freeze, he expected it this time. Pikachu blinked in confusion, wondering why everyone felt something was off about Ash.

Arceus rolled his eyes. "Had a tough night, couldn't sleep well, is it really that shocking?" he asked.

"Yes, it is," everyone deadpanned.

"Well," Dawn began, wanting to change the subject. "Let's let everyone out!" she suggested. Arceus and Brock nodded. All three hurled their Pokéballs, releasing their current Pokémon parties. "Breakfast time!" Dawn chimed happily.

"Well, let's get everything set up," Brock said, and everyone began to do their usual activities while setting up for breakfast.

'_Okay, Ash usually gets the table set up, then starts whining how hungry he is, easy,'_ Arceus thought unworriedly and started to assemble the table, which he managed to do rather quickly thanks to Ash's memories of the task.

"So Ash, ready for your next Gym Battle?" Brock asked, trying to strike up a conversation once they had sat down to eat.

Arceus smiled at him. "Yup!" he answered cheerfully. He frowned inwardly. _'Me saying that was creepy. Why can't people just say yes?' _"How long until we get there?"

"Well," Brock started. "If I recall correctly, we're close to town that has a blimp traveling agency. They have blimps with direct flights to Canalave City, so we'll take one of those."

"Alright," Arceus answered. "Sounds good to me."

Unknown to Arceus, someone was watching him intently. "Something's up… I just know it…" Pikachu muttered quietly. He had known Ash for years, from when he was a silly and rather meek trainer to the fully competitive and strong trainer (albeit still a bit silly) he was now, and he knew when something was wrong when Ash. An odd feeling just kept telling him _something _was up…but for now he had no proof. Maybe it was just Ash acting weird today, but if this continued, he would get to the bottom of it one way or another.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Hall of Origin, a certain boy-turned-god woke up from his power assimilation rest. He groggily opened his eyes, and found that the sheer amount of light that seemed to always bathe the beautiful Halls with an ethereal and holy glow didn't hurt his eyes in the slightest. Ash looked around slightly, taking in the surroundings as he gazed around in pure wonder with his new improved senses.

Ash couldn't help but feel marveled at how he felt. After his night's rest, he felt more united and in tune with Arceus' massive powers. He was amazed at all the sensations he felt, all the overwhelming emotions and feelings that filled the world around him despite being alone for the time being.

Ash closed his eyes and let himself get used to…himself, taking in and analyzing the portions of knowledge that Arceus had left behind for him so he knew how to properly impersonate Arceus and use his powers. Ash frowned. Arceus had also apparently left him some small thoughts for general rules he had to follow. "So, I can't do anything that violates the free will of anyone directly, do anything that harms or brings pain to anyone unless they really deserve it, no hurting the universe… and more stuff like that… and I can't reveal myself to be a human posing as God to anyone… this one's kinda detailed, interesting…" Ash 'read' aloud as he scanned the mental 'rulebook' Arceus had left for him. He smiled when he saw that he wasn't going to be overly restricted by the rules Arceus had left for him. They were just a few and quite general guidelines, he could still act pretty free-spirited and do almost anything he wanted to do.

He began to walk to the exit of Arceus' personal palatial room. He paused and glanced downwards. _'I wonder…'_ Ash thought as he levitated slightly, then set himself back on the ground, then he levitated another few inches again and then lowered himself back to the floor again. _'Levitation or walking? Which is better to move around for now… Nah, I've walked enough already in my life, levitation it is!'_ Ash thought happily as he levitated himself again.

He started exploring the Hall. Normally he would have gotten lost in the vast hallways of the palace, but now he seemed to know the entire place by heart as if he had lived here for the past thousand years or so, which was really weird. He looked down at himself, marveling at his new body. Yes, he had once been turned into a Pikachu by a witch in Johto under the excuse of understanding how Pokémon think, but you couldn't compare the feeling of being a Pikachu to the feeling of being a Pokémon as omnipotent and powerful as Arceus. The feeling was entirely different. He continued to look at himself, marveling at his holy golden colored wheel that was shinier than the best quality gold, to his perfect white fur, whiter than the whitest snow, to his golden hooves, and to his billowing white and gray mane. He laughed when he remembered the size comparison of Arceus to a human. "Yay! I'm finally taller!" he said happily, doing a happy spin where he was. Finally he was no longer a short fourteen year old! The fact that at his current height he would tower over any human being and most Pokémon made him even happier. He continued to hover around the Hall of Origin, marveling at the near perfect palace.

He wondered what Pikachu and his friends would think if they got a chance to see the way he was currently. Sadly, one of the rules that Arceus had left him was that he was forbidden from openly revealing that he was a human posing as Arceus. He would have to act as much like the God Pokémon himself as possible. At least, according to what Arceus had left him, Ash could reveal who he really was to people he could completely trust only if Arceus was discovered to not be Ash by those same people. As for Pokémon, Ash could only act like himself if that Pokémon had knowledge of him not being Arceus, but as long as that Pokémon or Legendary Pokémon didn't know and thought it was Arceus himself, he had to act serious. "Well, maybe I'll get to show them me being God if Arceus gets busted…" Ash said to himself, feeling relatively happy over the idea and thinking how the God Pokémon would react over getting caught, and he thought it'd be awesome to be able to show to his friends that he was God now.

"Okay…" Ash muttered. "I have to act like Arceus... but his personality is soooooo boring!" Ash whined, rather annoyed that he had to act all regal and serious when in the presence of others. He smiled brightly, getting an idea. "But that's only in the presence of those who don't know it though, if they know, I can be myself," he said to himself, cheering up a little.

Ash calmly floated over to the main entrance to the Hall of Origin, opening the huge golden doors with a simple exertion of his willpower. He exited, looking at the vast and nearly endless gardens that decorated the flying palace. Ash frowned. They were incredibly pretty, one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen ever, but he admitted they lacked… something._ 'Why is Arceus always in perpetual solitude?' _Ash wondered to himself._ 'Many would kill to live in a place like this, and some company might do him some good… I wonder how he'll feel if I remodel things a little,' _Ash thought.

He looked up and floated a bit higher into the air. He'd always liked flying, maybe a lap or two around the place to admire it would be a good idea. Ash began to fly around the place, admiring it with nothing but pure amazement in his eyes. After doing a few laps around the Hall of Origin he paused as a thought struck him.

Ash hummed. "I wonder what my first awesome and mighty deed as God will be?" he asked himself, thinking about the extent his powers could go. He paused as the most devilish and ungodly idea came to his mind. "I couldn't do this as 'Ash', but as 'Arceus' it should be easy." he commented to himself, laughing. "It's payback time!"

His entire body glowed a mighty golden and white divine light, and soon that shining halo of light disappeared as if he had never been there.

…

In the Sinnoh region, in a clearing far off the main road to Snowpoint city, a certain trainer was, well, training.

A very beaten up Weavile and Ninjask were looking on weakly as an Ursaring, Torterra and Electabuzz awaited their master's next order. "You two need to become stronger!" Paul said harshly, looking at the two solitary Pokémon. "Weavile, you've lost many of your most recent battles, even against Pokémon you've had a major advantage against. Ninjask, you also need more strength, the Sinnoh league is coming up soon and I need you at your peak in power!" Paul said to the two Pokémon. They reluctantly nodded, hated being part of Paul's extremely harsh training methods but unable to do anything about it.

"Torterra, use Stone Edge, Electabuzz, use Thunderbolt, and Ursaring, use Focus Blast," Paul ordered. "Ninjask, dodge the attacks as much as you can. Weavile, you too. Use any move of your preference to dodge or defend."

The huge Continent Pokémon took a step forward as two light blue rings of energy surrounded it, materializing into dozens of very sharp stones. Ursaring roared as a massive orb of red power formed between its claws. As for Electabuzz, it grinned as its antennas began to sparkle violently. The three Pokémon fired their respective attacks. Both Weavile and Ninjask tensed visibly. Weavile brought up both claws ready to defend itself, glowing a bright white as they powered up with a Metal Claw as it began to slash at the oncoming rocks, trying to protect itself against the super-effective attack, but the exhaustion from all the previous exercises soon became overwhelming, making its movements sloppy for just a second. That was enough for a rock to slam painfully into its midsection, breaking its focus long enough so that the rocks began to hit the Ice and Dark-Type rather painfully and knock it over.

Ninjask tried to use its massive speed, literally zooming between the rocks with ease as it seemed to vanish and reappear between the stones, but what the bug-type had never expected was that Electabuzz's Thunderbolt had been aimed at it; there was not enough time to react as the massive voltage coursed through its body. The Focus Blast collided with the ground between them, causing a big explosion that enveloped both Pokémon and effectively ended the training session.

"Pitiful," Paul commented, looking at them with a bored expression. His expectation had been that both Pokémon managed to come off without taking a hit. Both Pokémon instead seemed in pretty bad shape. Both were covered in cuts, bruises and several nasty injuries. "Get up," Paul ordered. "We still have several hours before lunch." Both Ninjask and Weavile felt like they just wanted to die on the spot, knowing that if they stayed down for too long it'd only make it go worse with their trainer. They tried to ignore the pain and weakly struggled to stand up. "I don't have all day you two sla-" Paul began, but was suddenly cut off by a very angry… voice? It wasn't quite a voice, but whatever it was, it filled his very core with fear.

"You…" Ash growled lowly with Arceus' unique voice, the one that was neither vocal nor telepathic, but spoken with the emotions and soul itself, though instead of being all love and happiness like Arceus had spoken to him a day prior, it was anger. He was literally seeing red over the conditions of Ninjask and Weavile, memories of his dear friend Chimchar coming to his mind.

Paul turned around, and was terrified to see a very majestic and incredibly amazing Pokémon that looked _very_ angry. Ursaring, Torterra and Electabuzz all paled in complete and utter terror, taking several steps back, recognizing the Pokémon before them. After all, how could they not recognize the creator?

"What the hell…" Paul muttered slowly, talking out his PokéDex and pointing it at the massive Pokémon before him. Sadly, the PokéDex only displayed a blank screen.

"I'm Arceus, the God Pokémon," Ash introduced himself, his emotion-based voice neutral for the moment, but at the same time it carried a deep sense of power in it. He paused slightly. _'Saying that was awesome!' _he thought giddily.

Paul growled slightly, easily seeing the Pokémon before him as a very powerful one. "Torterra, use Frenzy Plant!" he ordered, interested in the prospect of capturing a Pokémon that introduced himself as God. A few seconds passed. "Torterra?" Paul asked, turning around and seeing Torterra as well as Ursaring and Electabuzz all looking at 'Arceus' in utter terror. Clearly, they weren't going to commit a blasphemous act and fight him.

"I've been watching you, human…" Ash continued, drawing Paul's attention, privately thinking that calling someone 'human' instead of their name was also really awesome. "And I am not pleased with that I've seen…"

"So what?" Paul challenged, his earlier fear of the Pokémon before him gone for now, though Ash was going to make sure it returned soon enough.

Ash rose on his hind legs and stomped furiously on the ground, creating a tremor that shook harshly across the clearing, knocking Paul down. "I disapprove of the way you treat your Pokémon. Do you not care for their feelings? Do you not care for their wellbeing? Just like you, they are living beings! How dare you treat them the way you do!" Ash roared, his emotion-speech now filled with anger.

Paul shivered involuntarily in terror. This Pokémon's voice, though Paul had no idea how he was talking, seemed to have a terrible effect on him, making him cringe in fear at every word. Just what was this speech? "W-We-We-ll. I-I…" Paul stammered, too terrified to even utter a single coherent word.

Ash let his rage quell down slightly as he gazed softly at Weavile and Ninjask. His eyes glowed a bright golden as a veil of pure light covered both of them. In a second, all their injuries were gone, restored as if nothing had ever happened to them. Both of them looked at the god Pokémon with nothing but gratitude in their eyes, and uttered a quiet 'thank you' between their breaths.

Paul would have stared in wonder, but Ash glared at him. The simple fact of being caught in God's glare scared Paul to the very core of his soul. "I've had enough of your mistreatment of life itself. If you dare harm any of your Pokémon with your harsh training ever again, or if you fail to be nice to them, I _will_ make you suffer for it," Ash told him sternly in a very dangerous and hostile tone. "Do you understand?"

Paul was too terrified to even answer remotely at the Pokémon's declaration. He was sure that after this he wouldn't need to go to the bathroom for a month. "…" He found himself wondering what this Pokémon's idea of 'suffering' was, and how badly he wanted to find out.

Ash chuckled slightly, picking that little bit up. An idea struck him. "Fail to be nice and loving to your Pokémon, and I will turn you into a Magikarp that _can't_ evolve, got it?" he stated. Paul just whimpered, terrified at the idea. "I'll take that as a yes. Heed my warning, human. Oh, and you must offer a very courteous and emotional apology to that other trainer Ash, he has been constantly hurt with putting up with the pain you put your Pokémon though, and also, give a similar apology to your former Pokémon Chimchar…or else. I really suggest you don't test my patience," Ash said to him in a tone that clearly said that he better do it, lest he want to have God as a threat to his life. "Fail to even _try _to change, and I'm just going to smite you off the face of the earth without a second thought, and the apologies had better be good too, or you know what happens, and if you try to tell anyone it was me that made you change… well, thing won't be pretty."

Too terrified to even try to speak at the _very_ real threat to his life-and that strange way of speaking this Pokémon had was not helping either-all the trainer from Veilstone city could do was nod dumbly.

"Good," Ash remarked. "Pray you do not see me again." His entire body glowed a bright white light as he dematerialized, and teleported elsewhere.

Paul did not regain the ability to move for several very long minutes from the sheer amount of terror in his system. His Pokémon stared at him, all of the clearly hoping he'd follow the orders of the God Pokémon (Not that he had a chance, he had to, or else). This would certainly be a very memorable day for them.

Paul trembled slightly. "G-G-go a-and do w-whatever y-you want, you all g-get a f-free d-d-d-day…" he stuttered. They all cheered.

Abruptly, Ash reappeared, causing Paul to scream in terror. "N-no! Don't hurt me! I-I h-h-h-haven't d-d-done anything b-b-bad!"

"Oh, I know, I just thought you should know that when you apologize to Ash and Chimchar, it has to be in song," Ash said.

Paul stared at him blankly. "…What?"

"You have to apologize in song. And it needs to rhyme!" Ash said seriously. "Oh, and while you're at it, I want you to do it wearing a tutu. With clown makeup. Got it?"

Paul blinked. "Wh-what? But-"

"I said, _GOT IT?_" Ash bellowed.

"Yes! Yes!" Paul screamed in terror.

"Good. Get to it. And remember…I'll be watching." Ash winked and vanished again.

Paul stared at where the god Pokémon had been standing in disbelief for several second, and fell backwards as he finally fainted from fear. His Pokémon laughed and decided to celebrate the newfound freedom Arceus had blessed them with by stealing their trainer's clothes and scribbling vulgarities all over his naked body. That'd teach him…

…

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!" Ash laughed, unable to hold it back any longer once he reappeared in the Hall of Origin. What he so wanted to see was what his friends would say when suddenly Paul appeared out of nowhere and begged for forgiveness. Oh that we be _so_ awesome!

He would have been rolling around in laughter, but sadly, his midsection wheel didn't quite allow it. He wondered for a second if he had gone too far with Paul, but only for a second. He shook his head, laughing it off. Sure he had made a serious threat, but hey, Paul deserved it for the way he's been mistreating his Pokémon. _'I hope he changes for the better…'_ he thought to himself genuinely… and resumed laughing. Being God was certainly very awesome. He grinned as he wondered _what_ he would do next.

* * *

Well, Chapter 2 is done, I hope you all like it. Again, I apologize for the delay, but like I said, I've been terribly busy. I'll go into details on the A/N's of the Teaser chapter of my other Fanfic as I'm still gonna be a bit busy in the weeks to come. Don't worry, I'll write in my free time.

And for those who might be wondering, this Fanfic completely eliminates and/or alters entirely the plot and stuff that went on in Arceus and the Jewel of life movie. For the connection to the other two movies, I'll later explain.

Also, as you all know, April Fools day recently passed, and guess what? _I was pranked!_ (XD)The devious mind and perpetrator was **Shakari**, a great friend who helps me in the planning of A New Chance at Life and its sequel. She reviewed a past chapter of my Fanfic _BACKWARDS_. Yes, she wrote the entire review, from the spelling of the words to the structure of the review itself all backwards. It was awesome. If you are interested in checking out that, it's in the Review page for A New Chance at Life, it was for Chapter 7, if you wish to filter them all out. Is it weird to love a prank you received? Cuz I really like it! Thanks Shakari! And no, that doesn't mean its fine for you to give me tons of backwards reviews, don't steal her idea! Besides, April Fools has already passed. :P

Well, back to this chapter, what did you think? What shall await Arceus and Ash and the mess Mew got them in? (She's proud for it). Well, find out next chapter! =D

Don't forget to leave a **REVIEW**! I want to know what you think of my writing. Thanks in advance to everyone.


	3. Arrival To Canalave City

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_…wow this is getting kinda old, I put this at the start of every chapter, LOL!

A/N: Here's chapter 3 of Gods and Mortals! Enjoy! Sorry for the delay, but I was been checking up on stuff regarding my graduation and the admissions exam for my university and the inscriptions, as well as looking for a summer job like my mom asked me to, so I was busy and my writing got slow as a result. Anyway, here's the new chapter, enjoy!

Oh, and I'll soon post a new story idea I got called "Hidden Truth" so heads up for it! Don't worry, it'll be good, it's ARCEUS-master awesomeness certified, though it's not going to be a big Fanfic, but it'll be nice. And I'm still steadily advancing the planning of A New Chance For Adventure, so it too will soon be posted, though, I've still got a good deal of planning to go through before that. I think that after posting chapter 1 of "Hidden Truth." I'll work on starting A New Chance For Adventure, or depends on what my mood calls for, I know ANCFA is being very expected on recently.

Don't worry, I love writing, and I will get to all this, just that time hasn't been all that generous to me recently, well, enjoy this update!

* * *

After finishing up their breakfast and packing everything up, as well as doing some regular morning training and exercises to keep their Pokémon in a nice and healthy shape, the group continued their usual travels, this time heading towards the Blimp airfield which would take them to Ash's (Arceus') next Pokémon Gym in the Sinnoh Region, the Canalave City Gym.

After a few hours of uneventful and peaceful walking, they arrived at the blimp airfield. They marveled at the sight of it when they got their first glimpse at it. It was a very large grassy field with no hills. Once every few hundred feet there were tall metal gantry towers with several docking mechanisms to support and hold the blimps once they landed. Some already had a few blimps attached to them, presumably those that had arrived earlier. These were under maintenance or simply waiting to depart. In the center of the field was a big central control tower with a circular top floor with wide windows to give a complete three hundred and sixty degrees look around the field. The tower also had some communication dishes on top used to keep open communication with all the blimps currently in service.

"Well, let's go!" Arceus said eagerly, just like Ash would at the prospect of a new badge and Gym battle, something that never failed to cheer up the cap-wearing trainer. Pikachu flashed a quick analytical glare at him. Yes, that was something Ash would do, but something about it seemed a bit off… like it had been forced or thought up and didn't come off naturally like Ash usually did it.

Brock and Dawn, who was as usual cradling Piplup in her arms, didn't seem to notice anything odd and followed 'Ash' to the central control tower to get tickets to their next destination, Canalave City.

After a few minutes of walking through the large airfield and looking around in wonder at the fully-equipped and really neat-looking public transport blimps, the group arrived at the central tower. The automatic doors slid open as they neared to let them in, allowing them entry to the bottom floor, a reception area where tickets and travel information were given out.

The reception area was a mid-sized, elegant room with several seats for people to wait on, a TV for entertainment attached to the ceiling, a counter at the back where an elegantly dressed woman was standing, and a huge electronic panel behind the counter displaying information regarding the times of flights and available destinations. Arguing with the receptionist was a common friend of the group, Barry.

"What do you mean there's no flight directly to Snowpoint city?" Barry exclaimed rather loudly, leaning over the counter in exasperation.

"For the tenth time, blimps don't fair well in cold weather, and the closeness to the mountain and harsh winds make it too risky to fly there. As such we don't feature flights to Snowpoint City, so you'll need to find a different method of transportation," the lady said politely, which was surprising, since Barry had probably been yelling at her for over twenty minutes.

"Oh maaan…" Barry said, walking back to the seats in a depressed manner.

"Hey Barry," Brock greeted from beside him, looking at the blond trainer with a smile.

"Ahhhh!" Barry yelled, leaping and taking a step back. "Don't do that!"

"You don't want him to say hi?" Dawn asked jokingly, laughing.

"No! I meant I don't want him to startle me!" Barry said in exasperation, causing Dawn to giggle. He glared at Brock. "I'm going to fine you for scaring me like that and you have ten seconds to pay me or else!" he said angrily, looking at his Poketch and starting to count down. "Ten, nine, ei-"

"What's up Barry? What's with all the hustle?" Arceus asked casually, interrupting him from his countdown, mostly since he didn't know what a fine was, and since he guessed it was a human thing, he wasn't in much of a hurry to learn what it was. Pikachu stared at him, wondering if Ash would use such a sentence, but couldn't decide if the answer was yes, maybe or no.

"Oh, it's just that I want to go to Snowpoint City, but there's not a single flight there!" Barry complained. "I'll have to take the long way there, which is bad! I want my seventh badge!"

"Wow, you have six badges already?" Arceus asked in surprise. Not that he was genuinely impressed, he was just posing for what he knew Ash would do.

Barry nodded proudly. "I just beat Byron, the Canalave Gym leader three days ago to win my sixth gym badge." He took out his badge case and promptly displayed the six badges there, grinning triumphantly. "Only two left and I'm in the Sinnoh League!"

"Seems like my rival's won another badge, bummer," Arceus said, frowning.

"You aren't even my rival," Barry said offhandedly, brushing him off and looking away.

Knowing Ash would severely overreact at something like that, Arceus decided to do the same thing. _"WHAT?"_ he bellowed loudly. "What are you talking about, I _am_ your rival!"

"Eh, I don't consider you one, just because you beat me a few times and won a badge at the Hearthome City Gym doesn't mean you're good enough to be my rival yet. However, Canalave City Gym is a very tough and difficult Gym to beat, so if you defeat Byron, I might start considering you my rival," Barry said, shrugging it off.

While Arceus faux-fumed and Pikachu analyzed the fuming and noted several things that seemed off compared to Ash's typical outbursts, Brock spoke up. "You had problems in the Canalave Gym?"

Barry nodded. "I had to go train at a place called Iron Island before I could even get close to beating the Canalave Gym. Even after that, it was a pretty difficult match. The leader uses a very tough defensive style that's really hard to crack."

Arceus nodded confidently. "Shouldn't be too hard of a match, then."

Barry laughed. "Good luck; it's a really tough Gym. If _I_ had so much trouble, there's no way you can beat it!"

"We'll just see about that," Arceus said.

"So," Dawn began. "You're going to the Snowpoint Gym next, right?"

Barry nodded. "Yep, though, I may have problems with the Gym leader's Ice-Types. I've considered going back to Iron Island to train a bit more since the place is a very good spot to do so. That way I'll be even more ready to face that Gym!"

Brock nodded. "Well, we're already going to Canalave City ourselves, so why don't you join in?" he suggested.

Barry shrugged. "Oh well… I guess so…" he said, not every eager at the prospect since he had just returned from Canalave City, but oh well, at least he kinda liked the place. Brock nodded and walked to the counter to get the tickets for the blimp flight to Canalave City.

Dawn smiled. "I've heard Canalave City is also a nice touristic port!" she commented excitedly.

"Really?" Arceus asked, genuinely curious, since he didn't really know much about Human cities, and Ash was probably worse than him when it came to knowledge so there wasn't much point in looking at the boy's memories for reference.

Barry nodded. "Yeah, Canalave City is a commercial and touristic port. It's a bunch of islands of various sizes all interconnected by a series of bridges and walkways. Some islands are vacation paradises with amazing beaches and resorts while others are commercial areas," He explained. Having been in the archipelago for a few days himself he knew quite a lot regarding the city.

"Wow, that sounds really interesting," Arceus commented, wondering what Mew would make of such a place. The huge number of possibilities made his head spin.

Dawn turned to Brock as he received the tickets. "So, when's the next flight?" she asked curiously, looking very eager to go to the well-reviewed city.

The lady at the counter decided to answer that, since it was her job to do so. "The next flight for Canalave City is in forty minutes on the Blimp 'Air Drifblim' located at docking tower number three," she informed them kindly.

They nodded. Brock grinned; now that the tickets were out of the way he leaned over the counter with a besotted look. "Now that that's taken care of, would you like to come with me in a romantic blimp flight toward the tropical paradise which shall become our honeymoon? Imagine how happy we will be-" he was interrupted as Croagunk released himself from his Pokéball, one of his hands glowing a soft purple as he hit Brock in his thigh with his Poison Jab attack, causing him to cry out in pain. "-Oohh, I'm certainly…not…happy now…Ugh…call…me…later…" he said. A second later he fainted and Croagunk dragged him away silently. Barry, Arceus, Dawn and the lady in the counter sweatdropped at the scene that had just unfolded. Piplup and Pikachu snickered.

"Sorry for that," Dawn apologized politely to the confused woman. "Well, let's go and board the blimp!" she said to avoid another embarrassing situation, not that it was really needed with Brock already down for the count.

They exited the tower, looking around at the vast field and the several blimps stationed there. "So…" Dawn began, looking around. "Which one's our blimp again?" Abruptly Croagunk was beside her with the Tickets he had just taken from Brock. Holding them out for her, he croaked once to get her attention. "Oh, thank you Croagunk," Dawn told him gratefully as she took the tickets. She held up the tickets and looked at the picture of the blimp they were supposed to board. "That one!" she said, pointing to a huge silver-blue blimp stationed to the right of the control tower.

"Let's go already," Barry said impatiently, starting to walk towards the blimp. Arceus and Dawn followed him. Croagunk followed silently, dragging Brock along behind him. Since the blimp was already close to departing, the loading ramp was already deployed and several people were already boarding it. Our heroes followed suit.

They boarded the blimp, marveling at the luxurious and very impressive interior design. It had a light green floor with purple window frames, the tables and chairs were a light orange along with the walls, the ceiling was a dark purple with a series of soft purple lights, and in the center of what appeared to be the main reception and salon of the blimp was an elegant stand with multiple appetizers and drinks. The rest of the room was littered with dozens of tables and chairs to simply relax in or eat. Overall the place was decorated to have a happy mood to it.

"Nice," Dawn commented, already liking the place. "I could get used to traveling in one of these."

"Wow, cool," Arceus said as well, though he still liked the holy and godly decorations of his Hall of Origin a lot more. He paused when a particular thought occurred to him that made him shiver in fright. _'Ash better _not_ do anything to it!'_ he thought bluntly.

"_You might like some of the changes he makes if he does decide to do so. A young mind like his can come up with some very creative things, even more than a millions and million-years old deity like you,"_ Mew said telepathically, surprising him.

'_Mew? I thought you had gone to check up on Ash!'_ Arceus thought so Pikachu or the humans wouldn't hear him.

"_Oh, actually, I just went to eat some candy since I was hungry__. I'll go check up on him later. I didn't want to pressure him, he might feel insecure about himself if we're already checking up on him and it's barely been a few hours since he started the job,"_ Mew thought back to him. She was currently floating randomly about the dining salon, invisible to all eyes. She watched as Arceus, Dawn, Barry and Brock-finally recovered after the poison jab-took a seat at one of the tables near the windows, waiting for the blimp to depart.

'_True,'_ Arceus admitted. _'I just hope you know what you're doing Mew…and I still think you should eat healthier."_

"_Oh, I am sure, don't worry__, and nope, I love candy!"_ she said back at him.

Arceus rolled his eyes. Typical Mew. _'I hope you don't steal it from stores. You know Humans are very sensitive about their economy. Plus, stealing is bad.'_ Arceus thought sternly.

"_I leave money worth all the sweets I eat in the counter__s of the stores I visit, so there's no worrying,"_ Mew said.

'_I hope you didn't steal that money. How did you get it?'_ Arceus asked curiously, wondering how a Pokémon could get something only Humans would normally manage.

"_I expand my psychic powers to scan__ all around the city for dropped coins and bills, gather them, and use that to pay for the candy!"_ Mew said cheerfully. Arceus sweatdropped and decided not to ask anything further, though he did admit that was kind of smart.

"_Not kind of, it _is _smart,"_ Mew added, giggling. Arceus suppressed a chuckle, smiling faintly and feeling glad that he had Mew around.

…

Meanwhile, in Canalave city…

In a tent on one of the multiple islands that made up the city, we find Jessie, James and Meowth. All three had bags under their eyes and were looking really sleepy, as if they hadn't slept decently for a long time.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to get so far ahead of the twerps?" James asked uncertainly. They hadn't seen Ash and his group for a few days now, since they had decided to get a step ahead of them and go to Canalave City beforehand. "We might lose them!"

"Relax," Jessie said. "We overheard them at the Hearthome Gym, they're coming here, and we won't lose them. There's only one blimp airfield in Canalave City, so we know for certain they will be arriving there. And besides, we're making good money here!"

All three nodded in agreement. Jessie was currently checking on a huge green cylindrical machine that was crackling with dark energy. It was their brand new nightmare-inducing machine. James was currently holding a bag of Pidgey feathers and had two cans of paint near him. He was carefully painting the Pidgey feathers to look just like a Cresselia's feathers, and Meowth was counting all the money they had been getting from selling their Lunar Wing phonies. They yawned. The nightmare machine did have a drawback, the three of them had no defense to their own creation since their Lunar Wings were fakes, but at least the money was worth the bad dreams and sleepless nights. "So, how many feathers do we have left?" Meowth asked sleepily, missing count of how much money he had for the thousandth time.

James looked beside him. "I'd say around two bags, that's enough for a few hundred more Lunar Wings. Oh we'll be rich!" he said happily… and then yawned. "I wanna sleep!" he complained.

"What a bummer!" Jessie snapped. "Keep painting those Lunar Wings!" James nodded miserably. "Meowth, in the meantime, do you have the plan to steal Pikachu ready?" she asked, turning to the talking Pokémon.

Meowth nodded. "Yes, ready to fail as usual, dat's for sure. Though, what about all this?" he asked, motioning around to their latest scam.

Jessie hummed in thought. "We'll leave it closed in case we fail to get Pikachu. We could just return here and continue selling the Lunar Wings."

James and Meowth nodded. "Making loads of cash at the speed of light!" the three chorused as they went back to work…and yawned again.

"Hey…" Jessie began. "Let's get some sleep before the twerps arrive so we're fresh and ready to take them on. We'll turn off the machine for a while. Its daytime, so it should be okay. When we wake up to go and confront the twerps, we'll turn it on again so the scam can go on," she suggested groggily, rubbing her eyes as she struggled to stay awake.

James and Meowth nodded eagerly, agreeing to the idea immediately. Jessie walked to the machine and hit the off-switch so they could sleep for a bit. Not a second passed before the three feel asleep, snoring softly.

…

A few hours later, we find the 'Air Drifblim' soaring over the ocean as it made its way towards Canalave City. The group was enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean from the big viewports of the blimp.

"Amazing, it looks so pretty!" Dawn commented as she leaned on the window, looking out towards the endless blue sea before her. She smiled when she saw a pod of Wailords and Wailmers swimming about.

"Yeah," Brock said, agreeing with the blue-haired coordinator. "It looks so beautiful."

Arceus smiled at the scene. He had always loved peaceful and beautiful landscapes. "So wonderful…" he mumbled to himself. Pikachu nodded in agreement, for once not even thinking about his suspicions.

"Aaaaaahhhhh!" Barry screamed in frustration from his seat at the drink stand, earning him several stares from the people there. "Why does this have to be so slow!" he complained as he took a look at his Pokétch for the time. Despite the fact that a good deal of time had passed already, it seemed like they weren't getting to Canalave anytime soon.

Brock laughed. "Relax Barry, why don't you come here and enjoy the view with us?" he said, turning back to look at the blond Pokémon trainer.

Barry rolled his eyes. "Ugh, like there's much to do here besides that," he said a bit angrily as he walked to them, a soda in his hand.

Arceus laughed, typical impatient human. "Calm down, the view's wonderful." Pikachu nodded in agreement, staring out at the ocean. He did wonder why Ash was so patient and wasn't fuming around like Barry, but let it slip since he knew Ash liked beautiful landscapes too.

An hour or so later of simply talking and enjoying the trip-and in Barry's case complaining about why blimps weren't faster or didn't have plasma turbo engines-they finally arrived at their destination. "Wow…" Brock muttered as he gazed out the windows to Canalave city. "It looks much better in real life than in a bunch of guide book pictures…"

"It looks beautiful, it's all so amazing! I wanna get there now!" Dawn commented eagerly. Arceus, Pikachu and Piplup nodded in agreement.

'_I love __views like this…'_ Arceus though nostalgically yet again.

"_Yeah, and your Hall of Origin has a nice __view of its own, though, I still think my Tree of Beginning is _way_ better,"_ Mew thought back at him, grinning in his mind.

Arceus suppressed a small laugh. _'I do admit your tree is a magically beautiful place.' _Both of them smiled and gazed out at the approaching island city, though Mew was still unseen.

Canalave City was a series of around fifteen to twenty islands, all of them relatively close to each other and interconnected by a series of walkways and bridges. All of the islands seemed to be very nature friendly as green was the predominant color in them. They still had buildings here and there, mostly on the coasts and on the biggest island.

Several minutes later, the blimp began descending towards the second biggest island, where a relatively small airfield was. It was barely large enough to hold two blimps in contrast to the one they had departed from. After all the landing procedures had been taken care of and the boarding stairs were lowered, the passengers descended.

Brock smiled. "Amazing, this place is really good!" he said as he gazed around, seeing the beach as he disembarked from the blimp. He was really eager since beaches generally meant pretty girls in bikinis.

"About time we got here," Barry commented irritated, wondering again why there couldn't be a faster way to get to Canalave city that wasn't blimps. Then again, he knew this was probably the last time in a long while that he'd be coming here.

"We're finally here in Canalave. Aren't you happy, Ash? The next Gym badge is soon," Dawn said, turning to look at the trainer with a warm smile.

Arceus nodded at her. "Yeah," he said eagerly. He paused. _'I wonder what Pokémon battling feels like. Its humanity's most popular competition and sport,'_ he thought to himself.

Mew grinned. _"As weird as it may sound coming from me, it's actually kinda fun. It's full of excitement, adrenaline, awesomeness, and is a good exercise."_

'_And how would you know that__ exactly?'_ Arceus asked her curiously. He would have gazed around to try and look for her, but he knew that with his current almost nonexistent senses, he'd never spot her anytime soon unless she allowed it.

"_Oh, when I get bored, I sometimes __transform into a random Pokémon and let a nice trainer capture me for a while. I stay disguised the whole time and get some battles with that trainer. They can be very thrilling and fun,"_ Mew answered him.

'_Ah…__well, I hope you're right. I'll look forward to this,'_ Arceus thought, gazing around as the group walked down the ramp.

"_Oh, maybe you can convince the group to stay a while here in Canalave! __It's got nice beaches and interesting places to play around and have fun!"_ Mew told him happily, hopping around in the air on the spot she was in excitement. _"You'll love it Arcy! We can have so much fun!"_

'_Well, alright, I'll try to convince them, though how are you going to be with us if we're all 'having fun' as a group?'_ Arceus asked.

"_Simple Arcy, I'll just transform into a Human and meet up with __you guys_," Mew said without much worry.

'… _A__nd you expect us to simply have fun and stay with what would be a total stranger?'_ Arceus asked skeptically.

"_Where's the problem in that? Ash and his friends do that _all_ the time, duh,"_ Mew responded to him, giggling. Arceus paused and mentally berated himself when he realized it was true.

"So," Arceus began, looking around at the unfamiliar city. "Where to now?"

"Well, the Gym is in th-" Brock started, but was promptly interrupted by an elegantly dressed woman and a casually dressed man. The woman's bright magenta-colored hair was tied in an oversized ponytail, and the guy had had blue hair.

"Hello random group of trainers we've never seen in our lives and will never see again, I work for the blimp company. I take memorial photos for the travelers that use our service for the records," the woman said while holding up her camera for emphasis. "So I was wondering if you'd like a photo to have something to remember your journey by?"

"And they're high-quality pictures too!" the guy with her said.

They blinked. "Eh, what?" Dawn said, looking at the two and wondering what was going on.

Brock looked around, noting that several of the other passengers he remembered seeing in the blimp were already walking away to other parts of the island. "How come we're the only ones who you've made this offer to?" he asked.

"We did do this to all the passengers on this blimp already," the man answered. "It's just that you weren't paying attention." Brock shrugged, accepting it for now.

Arceus stared at them._ 'Where have I seen these two before…' _he thought to himself. _'Oh yeah, from Ash's memories. They're the two that keep following him, trying to capture his Pikachu. Jessie and James, right?'_

"_Yep,"_ Mew confirmed, who was currently floating around invisibly. _'And they also have their talking Meowth, who is behind some crates.'_

'_Should I warn our group?'_ Arceus asked, looking as the two 'photographers' set up the camera and got everything ready for the picture. _'It's probably one of their usual cheap scams to steal Ash's Pokémon.'_

"_No,"_ Mew told him immediately. _"Ash and his friends have trouble seeing through Jessie, James and Meowth's costumes and disguises, so play the idiot for now. If you suddenly warn Ash's friends of their disguise, they'd be very suspicious as Ash can never tell them apart."_

'_True,'_ Arceus admitted. _'Though won't it be dangerous?'_

"_Don't worry Arcy, if things get bad, I'll _subtly_ mess with them a bit, and _accidentally_ make their plan fail, which is very pathetic to start with,"_ Mew told him reassuringly, portraying a cute sugary smile in his mind.

In the meantime, the disguised Jessie and James set up their camera. "Okay, for the final addition, I'd like you all to release your Pokémon for the perfect picture!" Jessie said eagerly.

Arceus stared at them. _'It's now really obvious it's a scam. Should I fall for it, Mew?' _he thought, waiting for the pink psychic-type to answer him.

Mew nodded._ "Yes, no matter how obvious it is, Ash would always fall for it, so, you have to," _She told him telepathically.

Arceus knew she was telling the truth so he released Ash's Pokémon. "Come out everyone!" he shouted as he struck one of Ash's typical dramatic poses while throwing the five Pokéballs.

Immediately Pikachu's eyes narrowed as he examined the pose, noting several things that seemed off when Ash did that, the biggest one being that it seemed forced and lacked that bit of Ash's cheerfulness. Pikachu hummed as he examined it._ '…Something's still up… but, what?' _

Dawn and Brock followed, both releasing their Pokémon parties. Barry didn't do anything. "Huh? Come on Barry, it'll be a nice picture!" Dawn pleaded.

"No!" Barry said, crossing his arms. "I don't want any picture whatsoever!"

Dawn looked sweetly at him. "Come on! Pretty, pretty please?"

"Not gonna work," Barry said, turning to look away… and finding himself face-to-face with the photographer lady. "Aaaahhhh!" he screamed at her very intimidating look.

"You're taking that picture whether you like it or not!" she roared in a very intimidating and dangerous tone, causing Barry to look at her in terror. Suddenly she looked a whole lot nicer. "Now, if you'll pose for the camera please?" she asked sweetly, causing Barry to stare at her with a sweatdrop.

"Ugh, alright, but I'm just bringing out Empoleon, and that's that," he said, taking out a single Pokéball and releasing the Water and Steel-Type. They all got close together for the photo as the 'photographers' instructed them.

"Now, for a better effect and the final touch, would the trainers take a step back please?" James asked, holding a big flashbulb.

Arceus (still thinking this was all ridiculous), Dawn, Barry and Brock took a step back… and a steel cage fell on them. "Hey! What's this about?" Brock asked angrily.

Jessie laughed. "Meowth, soundtrack nine!" she ordered.

"Got it!" Meowth, currently behind some conveniently placed cargo crates with a stereo player, said as he pressed the play bottom and loud, deathly and creepy music began to play.

Jessie laughed darkly as she tore her elegant clothes off, revealing her typical white Team Rocket uniform underneath. She put her hand on her ear as if trying to hear something faint. "Listen, is that a terrified twerpish voice I hear?" she asked.

James grinned and threw off his worker clothes, revealing his white Team Rocket uniform. "Yes, it's speaking loud and clear!"

Jessie stepped forward and posed dramatically. "On the wind!" she exclaimed loudly.

James followed, posing equally dramatically. "Past the stars!" he followed, equally loudly.

Meowth jumped from behind the crate and landed between them. "In your ears!" he said, also really loudly.

The music picked up in rhythm. "Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace!" Jessie shouted, standing up normally while looking at the group.

James stood up normally as well, gazing in the same direction. "Dashing hope, putting fear in its place!"

Jessie stepped forward. "A rose by any other name is just as sweet!"

James followed. "When everything's worse, our work is complete!"

Jessie grinned. "Jessie!" she said, introducing herself unnecessarily.

James grinned. "James!" he said, introducing himself unnecessarily.

Meowth popped up between them. "And Meowth, now that's a nice name!" he said, introducing himself, also unnecessarily.

Jessie kneeled. "Putting all the do-gooders in their place…"

James kneeled too. He paused and spoke slowly. "…We're Team Rocket…"

The music exploded into a very loud and harsh rhythm. "In your face!" They all shouted, jumping and doing a really stupid and dramatic pose.

Wobbuffet suddenly appeared in front of them and saluted. "Wooooooooobbufet!" he said as a bunch of fireworks exploded behind them in a flurry of badly organized colors.

Arceus stared at them with a baffled, staggered, horrified, unbelieving, disturbed, dumbfounded, astonished, speechless, questioning, flabbergasted, terrified, crazed, traumatized, idiotic, dazed, shocked, lost, disbelieving, creeped out, weirded out, uncomfortable, frozen, dubious, distressed, incredulous, stupid, wide-eyed, what-the-hell-in-Giratina's-name expression. It was one thing seeing this in Ash's memories, but seeing it in person was a horror he was not ready for. Pikachu immediately noticed this.

'_There! Ash would never be that surprised no matter how weird Team Rocket's motto is, something__'s _definitely_ up!' _Pikachu thought, deciding he was going to pull a full blown investigation on this.

Arceus stared at them for a few seconds, letting the moment sink in. After a few seconds, he managed to regain his senses._ 'Mew, did we really make Humans _this _stupid?' _he thought slowly, asking himself the very same thing.

He got silence as his only answer for a few seconds. _"Eh… I'm not sure. Probably?"_ Mew said.

Both Arceus and Mew paused. _'Yes. We did,'_ they thought at the same time.

Arceus looked at them skeptically. _'I think we were in a very bad mood, or were rather out of character when we decided to create Humans, because this takes it to the very extreme…'_

Mew giggled happily. _"I don't remember that well, it was soooooo long ago..."_

Jessie laughed. "Now, for our grand capture! Meowth, do it!"

Meowth nodded. "Hey! Pika-pal!" he called to the yellow mouse. Pikachu turned from Ash to look at Meowth. The normal-type laughed at him, turned around and waved his rear at him. "Na-nananana! Bet you can't hit me with a Thunder, you're that pathetic!"

A vein of anger appeared on Pikachu's forehead as his cheeks sparkled dangerously. He unleashed a potent Thunder attack towards Meowth. "Now!" Jessie and James shouted as they picked up Wobbuffet from the sideline and placed him in front of them. "Use Mirror Coat!"

"Alright!" Wobbuffet said with a salute, his body glowing a light pink as he activated the psychic-type move. Pikachu's Thunder hit him full-force, struggling against the Mirror Coat but ultimately failing as the electrical attack was sent back at Pikachu and the others with double the voltage and power. They all screamed as they were shocked by the electrical attack.

Pikachu sweatdropped and turned to them. "Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm sorry!" he apologized over and over again to the shocked group. Buizel, Staravia, Empoleon and Piplup, who had taken the most damage, glared at him angrily. Pikachu scratched his head in embarrassment.

Suddenly, a huge net fell on top of the group as Jessie, James and Meowth were already in their hot air balloon. "Ha! Finally twerps, your Pokémon are ours!" they laughed as James gave more power to the balloon, lifting up the net wit the trapped Pokémon inside.

"Pikachu, use Iron tail to break the net! Buizel, help with Sonic Boom, and Gliscor use X-Scissor!" Arceus shouted. Pikachu noted the hint of worry in his voice, making him doubt slightly, but he was in danger now, so he pushed aside his suspicious and worries. His tail glowed a solid white as it hardened to metal. Buizel helped with crescent blasts of Sonic Boom emanating from his tails while Gliscor slashed his claws in a cross shape, his pincers glowing brightly as a bright blue-white energy cross appeared in front of him. They all attacked the net.

"Hahaha! That net is indestructible! You can't win!" James boasted, laughing as they went higher and higher.

Mew looked around and noted that the situation was getting a bit tough. Her eyes glowed as she entered Barry's mind lightly to make sure he didn't notice, and made him remember that only Empoleon had been taken out of the picture and he still had other Pokémon.

Barry got an idea. "Hey! That's right, I have other Pokémon!" he said as he grabbed a Pokéball. "Go, Skarmory!" he shouted, releasing the Steel-bird Pokémon outside of the cage they were in. "Use Steel wing to cut that rope!"

Skarmory flew towards Team Rocket's balloon as fast as it could, its wings shinning a bright white as it rose. Team Rocket noticed this. "Uh-Oh…" James muttered. He grabbed a Pokéball and released Carnivine. "Use Bullet Seed!" he ordered. Carnivine, as usual, decided to eat his head instead. "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! Not me you stupid plant, attack them!"

Carnivine released James, turned and opened its jaws, firing a barrage of glowing yellow seeds. They collided against Skarmory, but being a Steel/Flying Type, the grass-type attack didn't even leave a scratch. It flew undeterred and cut the rope connecting the net with the Pokémon and the balloon, causing the net to start falling back to the ground.

Unseen by anyone, Mew decided to lend a paw. Her eyes glowed a gentle pink as a few near-microscopic, extremely powerful Psycho Cuts attacked the net in several places. The attacks, despite their tiny size, were too powerful and precise for the net to withstand, weakening it greatly. Just as the Pokémon were going to hit the ground, she created a gentle psychic cushion just a few millimeters before they could crash, reducing the force of the impact a lot, just enough for the weakened net to fall apart and release all the trapped Pokémon, everything happening so fast and so subtly no one noticed.

Well, almost no one. Arceus smiled. _'Thanks for the help Mew,' _he thought gratefully.

She raised an eyebrow. _"How did you know?"_ She asked curiously.

'_I'm Arceus,'_ he replied.

"_A__h, good point,"_ Mew said happily.

Arceus looked at the flying hot air balloon. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" he said. Pikachu nodded and took a leap upwards, firing a powerful bolt of electricity at the Hot-air balloon, hitting it and shocking Team Rocket senseless. The Balloon's burner exploded from the electrical current, sending the trio blasting off into the distance.

Jessie glared at James. "I thought that net was indestructible!"

James shrugged. "The net is indestructible, not the rope holding it to the balloon," he said. Jessie facepalmed.

"Dat's a bummer," Meowth said sadly.

"Team Rocket's Blasting off again!" they chorused as they flew away.

Brock smiled. "Happiny, get us out of here," he said.

The small baby Pokémon nodded happily and punched the steel cage with her super strength, cracking it and reducing it to metal dust from the sheer power behind the punch. "Thanks!" Dawn said, glad to be free of the cage.

"So," Arceus began, now that the crisis was over. "Where to now?" he asked.

"Well, guess it's time to go to the Canalave Gym," Brock announced. Arceus smiled like Ash would, though he was secretly eager to try battling. Mortals sure had interesting hobbies. "What about you Barry?" Brock asked, turning towards the blond trainer.

"I'll go to Iron Island to train some more. I'll need it for the battle at the Snowpoint Gym," he announced as he turned to leave, Empoleon walking at his side. "See ya!"

Brock, Dawn and Arceus nodded and returned their Pokémon back to their Pokéballs, save for Pikachu and Piplup, as usual. "Well, let's go to Canalave Gym!" Arceus said eagerly, and walked in the wrong direction on purpose like he knew Ash would instead of waiting for directions.

Brock laughed. "Erm, Ash, Canalave Gym is that way," he said, pointing to a different walkway.

"Oh, sorry, well, let's go!" Arceus said, and the group began to walk in that direction.

Just as Piplup began to follow, Pikachu stopped him. "Wait, I need to talk to you," he said.

Piplup looked at him in confusion. "Sure, what's up?" the water-type asked, wondering what Pikachu would want.

"I need your help," Pikachu told him. "You see, ever since this morning Ash has been acting really weird, and simply not being himself. He's… different. I know it. And I need your help to find out what's up with him…"

Piplup stared at him baffled for a second, but decided to trust the Electric-Type's words. After all, he knew Ash better than anyone. "I'll help, but… what makes you think something's wrong? He looks and smells normal to me."

"Piplup… your sense of smell is terrible, but anyway, he does smell the same, it's just…something's different. It's like he's possessed or something and is trying to pass himself off as the real Ash…my real worry is, if that's not Ash…then where's the real Ash, my friend? Anyway, thanks for helping me, I owe you one. I'll tell you what's up when I get a plan," Pikachu said, nodding at the Penguin Pokémon, who smiled back at him. They high-fived and ran back to the group.

Unknown to Piplup or Pikachu, they had been watched by a Pokémon they could have never hoped to ever detect. Mew giggled as she saw them go back. "Interesting…" she purred to herself, wondering what the two Pokémon had in mind against Arcy. "This is getting good." She murmured as she turned to look back at Arceus as he walked away with the group. She smiled. _"Hey Arcy, I'm going to go check up on Ash for a bit, he's had all morning and part of noon to himself by now. After that I'll go and look for Ho-Oh and Lugia, be back in a bit!"_ she said telepathically before teleporting away.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"Ughh… my head…" Paul muttered as he finally woke up from the worst sleep he'd ever suffered. He struggled to stand up, a horrible headache splitting his skull. "What…happened?" he questioned, rubbing his eyes to get the tired feeling off him.

He struggled to stand up, his legs wobbling uncontrollably. A gust of wind blew by, making him shiver… wait, why did he feel that breeze on all his body? He looked down and saw, to his horror, that he was naked. C_ompletely naked_. And worse, his entire body was covered in vulgar insults and curses written with a marker. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and then glanced worriedly around to see if anyone had heard him. He sighed in relief when he found himself completely alone.

"… How?" He asked quietly, wondering how he had gotten in this predicament. The memories of what had happened before he had fainted came back to him, though he didn't remember Arceus, as the Pokémon had called himself, removing all his clothes…or scribbling all these insults on him. He had left after telling him to apologize in song. The thought of doing that made him shiver. He frowned when he noticed his clothes on the ground… completely ripped apart.

He walked to his backpack and opened it, looking for a fresh change of clothes. He paled in horror when he noticed that they weren't there. He also noticed his marker was also missing. That explained the scribbles, at least. "But who..." Paul muttered. He felt a pang of terror as he heard a series of laughs and giggles. He turned around abruptly, holding his backpack in front of himself to cover his privates.

He wasn't sure if he was glad or scared that the ones in front of him were his Pokémon. He hoped they would take it easy on him… "H-hello," he greeted them timidly, something very uncharacteristic of him. Then again, the entire situation was out of his control and completely against him. Weavile, Honchcrow, Ninjask, Ursaring, Electabuzz and Torterra stared at him, barely holding their laughs. Paul didn't remember releasing Honchcrow from his Pokéball, but he must have released himself after the event with Arceus.

Weavile stepped forwards, holding Paul's clean clothes. The purple-haired trainer sighed in relief. "Thanks Weavile, I nee-" He didn't get to finish as Weavile threw the clothes in the air, and with a masterful Night Slash ripped them to useless shreds. Paul choked on his words. Okay, now he was in big trouble. "Why did you do that? Now I don't have anything to put on!" Paul reprimanded the Pokémon angrily.

Weavile just grinned smugly. Paul frowned when he remembered he couldn't do anything to them lest he wanted Arceus to turn him into an evolution-restrained Magikarp. Torterra chuckled and turned to gaze to the right; Paul followed his gaze and noted he was staring at that mid-sized city he had come from before heading on the journey towards Snowpoint City.

Paul's eyes widened when he realized that if he wanted new clothes, he had to go there… as he was now, completely naked. He held his backpack tighter in terror and turned towards his Pokémon. "You'll help me get new clothes right? RIGHT?" All of them shook their heads at the same time. Paul bit his lip in fright, wondering if his Pokémon were turning against him and dumping him as their trainer.

Torterra, his first Pokémon, smiled at him, and that smile was perhaps one of the most comforting things Paul had seen. It told him they were still going to be his Pokémon and weren't going to dump or abandon him or something like that. That still left one matter to attend to, though. "How am I getting new clothes?" he asked. They shrugged, clearly telling him 'This isn't our problem.'

"Come on guys! I'll be nice to you like that Ash kid is and I'll treat you fairly like Arceus told me to, but don't do this to me!" Paul begged, starting to get desperate.

Torterra shook his head, and realization dawned upon the lavender-haired trainer. "This is payback isn't it?" he asked quietly. To his dismay, his Pokémon nodded to him. "At least, after this you'll all go back to listening to me right?" Paul asked. Thankfully, his Pokémon nodded, though a quick glare from them quickly told Paul that he'd _better_ be nice to them or else.

Paul walked backwards, his backpack still held firmly in front of his privates, and hid behind a bush. His Pokémon snickered at him. "I hope there's something in here that I can use to cover myself… or a least wash the marker away… lest I put leaves on…" Paul muttered as he rummaged through his backpack's contents.

Torterra laughed. "Think we're going too rough on him?" he asked, looking at the other five Pokémon with him.

They stared at each other for a second. "Nooooooooo!" They all said at the same time.

"This is actually kinda fun," Honchcrow admitted, chuckling as he gazed at the bush Paul was hiding in.

Ursaring nodded. "Yeah, though, why humans fear nudity so much will always be way beyond me. Doesn't he see us naked all the time?" he questioned in a very confused tone.

Electabuzz shrugged. "Humans are stupid, what do you expect?"

Torterra nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's blame it on human stupidity."

Weavile laughed. "Well, we destroyed all his spare clothes, so that means that if he wants new ones, he'll have to go to the city as he is now! Ohhh, that will be so much fun!"

Ninjask nodded. "Wish we had one of those human machines that record stuff!" They laughed.

"Well, he'll have to apologize to Chimchar and that other trainer, so I can't wait to see Paul dressed like a girl and singing and dancing!" Torterra said, barely containing laugher. He failed and laughed openly. Oh, this was going to be _so_ much fun. Though, they were all wondering how Paul would be after Arceus' warning. After all, picturing him nice and caring was… well, it was safe to say the very thought of that made them grimace at how weird it seemed.

"Hey guys!" they heard Paul call over. They turned to him, seeing his head poke over the bush. "There's nothing to wash the marker off in my pack, please tell me there's a river near here!" he shouted. They shook their heads. Of course, there was a small creek about half a mile from there, but Paul didn't need to know that.

Paul sighed, not looking forward to what was next. "Figures."

* * *

A few hours later…

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Ash laughed uncontrollably as he looked into the dimensional viewscreen he had created. He was watching how Paul was crouching behind a bush near the city border. Since his Pokémon weren't going to help him, and kept destroying anything he could use to cover himself, he had to go as he was, with nothing but his backpack to cover himself. At least he had gotten a Hotel Room for the night before in this city, if he could _just_ make it there...

Ash grinned. Oh, the sweet taste of vengeance. Being God was certainly exciting. He wondered what else he could do. Sure he had to keep up with Arceus' duties and maintain the fabric of reality, among other things, but he had received knowledge from Arceus on how to do that, so he wasn't really scared, and having some fun before starting on that wouldn't hurt anyone.

He continued to look at the viewscreen, chuckling to himself at the predicament Paul's Pokémon had put him in. "This is _so_ much fun," he commented, his inner emotion-voice filled with mirth. He wondered for a second if he should make Paul's journey back to the hotel room a bit harder by altering reality and making all sorts of mishaps happen to him, but decided to be merciful, since the purple-haired trainer had had enough for the time being. Plus, there was still that singing apology he had to go through.

"What's so much fun?" an ever-loving unmistakably cute voice asked.

"Ahhhh!" Ash screamed from fright, and in his terrified frenzy, quickly deactivated the viewscreen to hide it before anyone could se it. "I wasn't doing anything bad!" he said quickly, his emotion-voice filled with fear as he abruptly turned around to face Mew. The scene seemed really odd considering the towering God Pokémon was looking fearfully at a small pink Pokémon.

Mew stared at him for several seconds before bursting out laughing hysterically. After a minute, she finally regained her breath and stared at the still-wary Ash, holding back giggles. "What were you doing?" she asked curiously. She could read his mind, but decided to let him talk first.

"Nothing!" Ash said quickly, shaking his head rapidly. He paused when he realized Mew had spoken regularly with her mouth instead of her mind, and that all he heard had been Mew saying her name several times, though, for some reason, out of her voice he could make out perfect sentences and understand them clearly, even more than how he partially understood Pikachu's speech patterns. He attributed it to now being a Pokémon himself.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaash, what were you doing?" Mew asked, putting her hands on her hips in a scolding and motherly manner.

"Nothing, nothing!" Ash said again. "Really!" He paused again and decided to greet her, trying to change the topic. "Ugh, Hi Mew."

Mew giggled. "It's okay Ash, I'm not gonna do anything or get mad at you, I'm just curious. Plus it can't be that bad. Don't worry." With a bright pink flash she teleported so she was now sitting on his head. "Come on!" she encouraged him, hopping up and down on his huge head happily.

Ash felt a bit more comfortable, knowing Mew was an overly playful type like him. He smirked. "Prepare to laugh," he said as his eyes glowing a celestial golden as he reactivated the view screen, showing Paul, who was still looking around while hiding inside a bush.

Mew stared at him and laughed. "So, what's the story?" she asked once her laughter had died down, wondering what events had led up to such a scene.

"Well…" Ash began. Since he didn't know how to explain it, he decided to use a trick he had recently learned upon becoming God. With a thought, he mentally filled Mew in with all the back-story of him and Paul, how he had terrified him as Arceus, and how Paul's Pokémon were taking revenge on him for being a mean trainer. Mew burst out laughing even harder, her powerful mind processing all the information Ash sent her in less than a second.

Mew wiped a tear from her eye with the tip of her tail. "This is funny," she said, voice hoarse from her fits of laugher. If only Arceus would be this playful and not so stern all the time…

"Yeah," Ash agreed, nodding eagerly. "So, how's Arceus doing?" he asked, since he hadn't had a moment to check on him while being so distracted scaring Paul.

"He's doing fine. He's getting used to being you. Your Pikachu's sharp, though, he's starting to get suspicious about Arcy…" Mew replied. "Aside from that, all has been fun and interesting."

Ash sighed. "Poor Pikachu. I wish we could tell him…"

Mew smiled at him. "Sorry Ash, but we can't tell people about it."

Ash looked downwards. "He's gonna get really mad at me for this. But can I at least get a chance to show off my new powers to my friends? I wonder what they'd think."

Mew grinned. "Sure, though that would only happen in one of two scenarios: either if Arcy gets discovered, or if his vacation period ends and he decides to give you a final day as God before returning you to a Human."

"That's good to know," Ash said. "So, how's the group going?"

"Fine," Mew answered. "Aside from Pikachu getting suspicious, everything's been good. Arcy's gonna go and challenge the Canalave Gym soon, and after that he'll try to convince the group to stay a while in the city. I want Arcy to enjoy his break to the fullest!"

"That's nice," Ash admitted. "Wish I could join…"

Mew laughed. "Don't worry, you're God now, you can do whatever you want now, enjoy all the possibilities of fun you can imagine, so long as you keep Arcy's tasks in check and don't do anything against his rules."

Ash nodded. "Right."

Mew floated from his head and hovered just in front of him, putting her paws on her hips. "Be a good boy and don't do anything bad!"

Ash stared, feeling like she was acting like his mom. "Err, okay." Mew smiled tenderly at him.

"Today we met those three Team Rocket guys that keep following you around," Mew told him, laughing. "Arcy's reaction was priceless!" she said, telepathically filling him in on how the moment went, pretty much the same way he had relayed his and Paul's backstory.

Ash laughed as he scanned the information. "Wow, he was kinda shocked," he commented. "That was really funny."

"Well…" Mew began. "Seeing that motto of theirs was really creepy. How do you put up with that everyday?" she asked curiously.

"Practice, I guess…" Ash answered. He and Mew shared a good laugh, turning to look back to the view screen and saw that Paul still hadn't built the courage to go out of the bush.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Mew started, getting Ash's attention. "Me and Arcy decided that you'll get a pair of advisors to help you!"

"Aww…" Ash said sadly. "I wanted to be free. What if they restrain me on everything?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong Ash, they will help you on any matter you need regarding other Legendaries and important choices, but you can still have fun and play around. Plus, they're very nice Pokémon and you'll love their company," Mew told him with a smile. She knew Ash was a very sociable person and the lack of company would be bad for him, so getting Lugia and Ho-Oh would give Ash some good company.

Ash's face lit up. "That sounds good, I was starting to get lonely…so, who are they?" he asked.

"Lugia and Ho-Oh," Mew answered. "I'll inform them later of the new task they have received."

"You mean, the Lugia and Ho-Oh_ I_ know?" Ash asked, eager to interact with Lugia once more, and finally meet Ho-Oh face to face since he'd only seen her a few times from a distance.

Mew nodded. "Yep."

Ash smiled, thinking back to his adventure in the Orange Islands and to Lugia, one of the first Legendary Pokémon he had really forged a friendship with, though recently that list had been expanding more and more. "That's really cool! Now I'm really eager to meet them."

Mew grinned. "That's the spirit! You'll love their company. So, how does it feel to be God, Ash?" she asked curiously.

"It feels… amazing, it's an incredible feeling… it's so wonderful I'm at a loss of words on how to describe it. Sorry If I don't have much of an answer…" Ash responded Mareepishly.

"Its okay, I know you're probably still trying to come to terms with it. You can give me a better answer later when you're ready," Mew told him reassuringly.

"Alright," Ash said, smiling happily and innocently at her.

"Well," Mew said. "I better go. I'll check up on Arcy for a while and after that I'll go and tell Lugia and Ho-Oh to come here. Seeya Ash!"

Ash smiled at her. "Bye Mew." The pink psychic-type teleported away, leaving Ash alone for the time being. He gazed at the view screen again and saw Paul was uprooting the bush so he could use it for mobile cover. His Ninjask wasn't letting that happen, however, and with an impressive Fury Cutter and his massive speed, the entire bush was cut apart. Paul gasped in horror and held his backpack tight to him, jumping into another bush. A bush which quickly disappeared, again thanks to the Ninjask. Ash laughed at the 'accidental' consequences of his scaring Paul. Vengeance was so sweet!

* * *

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand finished! I hope you all liked Gods and Mortal's chapter 3! Sorry that Ash's part of the chapter was kinda short, but he'll get a lot more screen (chapter?) time in the next chapter, also, if all goes well, we'll see_ lots_ of legendaries in it too. Don't forget to leave a **REVIEW**, tell me what ya think! =)


	4. Creation Triple Problems

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

And here's chapter 4. Enjoy it all my dear readers. I want to extend my thanks to my friend Dimensional42 for helping since this Fanfic started. Thanks also to my friend csigamer1990 for his help in this chapter, and special thanks for my dear friend and beta reader Ri2 for all the wonderful help he's given me in Gods and Mortals ever since the Fanfic began.

So yeah, as I promised last chapter, this one is full of legendaries! =) Enjoy!

* * *

Arceus smiled to himself, secretly eager to participate in one of those famed Pokémon battles from a Human's perspective. Sure he'd seen quite a few from Ash's memories, like all of those leagues and Gym battles, but that was different from actually being part of it. His main concern was emulating Ash's unique battle style. He hoped he did it right, or else he'd have Ash's friends getting suspicious about him.

Currently they were crossing the last of the bridges that would lead them to the island where Canalave City's gym was located. After a few minutes of uneventful walking, the group reached their destination, marveling at the sight of the Gym as it came into view. Like all the other Gyms, it had a rather cool design. The Gym was a tall cylindrical building, the first half covered in heavy and sturdy-looking rectangular rocks sprouting in an upwards angle. After that, the following half was covered in a series of overlapping thick iron plates, while on the very top was a dome-like structure with a series of windows that ran all across it. Brock whistled in approval at the sight of the Gym. "Now that's what I call rocks and defense! I like it!" he said. Obviously this Gym reminded him of his own.

Dawn giggled, understanding. She remembered Brock was the former leader of Kanto's Rock-Type Gym. "Well, aren't you supposed to be cheering for Ash?" she asked teasingly, laughing slightly as she turned to gaze at the Pokémon breeder.

Brock paused as Arceus snickered at him. "True. Well, you can win Ash!" he cheered on the cap wearing trainer. They walked forward until they stood at the huge iron doors that made up the entrance to the gym and knocked. A few seconds passed and there was no answer. They stared at the gate in confusion.

"Hello! Is anyone home?" Arceus called, knocking on the gate again, this time a bit harder.

"I wonder, why say 'home' when we're knocking at a Gym?" Brock muttered questioningly, gazing at him out of the corner of his squinty eyes before looking back at the Gym again.

"Well, it could be tradition," Arceus answered off-handedly, earning himself a quick analytical glare from Pikachu that no one noticed. _'At least I don't just barge in like it's my own home like a certain pink Legendary Pokémon does at _my_ Hall of Origin…'_ he added mentally, thinking about the aforementioned candy-loving legendary.

They turned to the door as they heard a crack. The heavy door opened slowly to reveal Byron's assistant, a well-built blue-haired man. He stepped outside in a sluggish, disorientated manner and they immediately noticed something was clearly wrong. He looked very tired and had clearly visible bags under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept for a whole week. "Ugh… who is it?" he asked wearily, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Dawn, Arceus, Pikachu, Piplup and Brock grimaced at the man's condition, he looked terrible!

"Is the gym leader present for a battle?" Arceus asked him, wondering what could have done this to him, although, due to the closeness they had to a certain island, Arceus already had a suspect in mind...

The assistant yawned tiredly. "No, Byron went to train on Iron Island and won't be back for a few days," he answered. "You'll have to wait until he gets back for a Gym battle."

Arceus sighed. It looked like the battle would have to wait. He smiled inwardly, as this was what Mew had wanted so badly, now he had the perfect excuse to stay in Canalave City for a few days without raising any suspicions from his friends. "Oh well…" he said sadly. Pikachu sighed in sadness too, he had also been expecting a nice tough battle, not because of the battle itself, but because he knew that a Pokémon Battle was the best way to figure out if this Ash was real or not. No one, absolutely _no one_ could imitate Ash's style on the battlefield, Pikachu was one hundred percent sure of that. He also never turned down a good battle, but that just added to the disappointment.

"Well," Brock began, changing the topic abruptly. "What happened to you? You look terrible."

"Well… it's not just me; it's everyone in Canalave…" the assistant began, causing Dawn and Brock's jaws to drop in shock. Arceus sighed, his suspicions having being confirmed. "You see, several days ago, everyone in town started having horrible unending nightmares… and as such no one can sleep in the least bit, it's horrible!"

Arceus, Dawn and Brock gasped. "Where have I heard that before…?" Brock began, feeling the subject was vaguely familiar, though he couldn't quite remember from where.

Arceus sighed. There was only one being who could do this. _'Darkrai…'_ the former god Pokémon thought to himself. _'It has to be him, there's no one else that could do this. I wonder why he's terrorizing this of all places? Then again, it is relatively close to New Moon Island. At least Cresselia's island is near too, we can always count on her to get Darkrai to back off.' _He paused and snickered, remembering the reason as to why that always happened, but then froze as a particular thought entered his mind. _'Darkrai… I better _NOT_ have any nightmares or when I get back to full power you are in _SO_ much trouble…'_

"Anyway," the assistant muttered, rubbing his eyes and suppressing another yawn. "I'll be going to try to get some sleep, see ya kids in a while…" he said as he closed the doors of the Gym.

The group sighed sadly. "Great, the gym leader is out of town and everyone's having nightmares…" Arceus muttered, though he was wondering what Darkrai was up to, knowing the nightmare Pokémon, he was, well, probably causing the nightmares just for fun, or maybe he had wandered into town for something and forgot he always caused nightmares? Pikachu nodded sadly in agreement.

"Hey, I know, why don't we go shopping?" Dawn suggested, trying to lighten the group's mood. "It might cheer us up a bit more, and we might find more clues as to what's going on!"

"Yeah, I guess so, it's not like we can do much here," Brock agreed, turning to walk away.

"Well, let's go then," Arceus said, following him. With that the group walked towards a different island, the biggest one in Canalave City, and also the most populated one, as it had a very nice city bursting with buildings of all different styles and makes. Even so it was still nature-friendly, as at least half the island was covered in a predominant green coloration, with lots of parks within the city itself.

It was also completely empty. Not a single person was walking the streets. All the shops and buildings within sight appeared to be closed. "Wow…" Dawn muttered, shivering slightly at the ghostly feel to the city. "It's all so deserted. I guess the nightmare problem really is severe. Where is everyone?" she asked, looking around.

Brock hummed. "If I took a wild guess, I'd say trying to get some sleep," he said, also looking around in hopes of finding someone. "And probably failing..." he added sadly, wishing he could do something to help out. If he did, maybe all the women in town would regard him as the hero that stopped the nightmares and would date him! He grinned giddily at the thought.

Arceus nodded. "Probably…" He frowned_. 'I hope Mew gets back soon, she'd be very useful now to get some answers… and to find Darkrai to give him an earful!'_

They walked for a few minutes through the shopping district, around streets and different plazas, all deserted, until they came across a police module. "Hey! Officer Jenny might be there!" Dawn said, her hopes lighting up. "Let's go!" Arceus and Brock nodded, following her into the police module.

Entering, they found a…sleeping Officer Jenny, leaning over the counter with a troubled look on her face. "Ahhhhhhhh!" She screamed in terror as she woke up abruptly from a horrible nightmare. She looked at the group and screamed again. "Ahhhhhhh! Who are you?" she demanded, nearly falling off the counter and grabbing two Pokéballs, ready to fight.

The group stopped and raised their hands in a nonthreatening manner. "Hey, relax officer, we're just a group of trainers," Brock said. "I'm Brock, and these are my friends Ash and Dawn," he said, introducing the group to the troubled officer. She looked just as bad as the Gym leader's assistant. Piplup and Pikachu glared at him angrily. How dare he forget about introducing them?

Officer Jenny relaxed visibly. "Sorry for that… it's just that all these nightmares are driving me crazy!" She said in irritation, wanting nothing more than to put an end to this, but even she felt completely powerless to stop it, as she knew that even if she found Darkrai… well, she wasn't gonna beat the god of nightmares with a Growlithe and an Arcanine anytime soon.

Brock nodded in comprehension. "It's alright, though. Got any idea on what's causing them?" he asked curiously, desperate to help her, and maybe get a date for being her hero.

"It's a Poké…" Officer Jenny began…and promptly fell asleep. She began sliding off the counter to fall on the floor. Cue Brock running over and catching her before she fell down. Holding her softly, Brock sighed in relief, glad he had saved her from a nasty fall. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" she screamed as she waked up from another horrible nightmare. She stared at Brock and screamed again while punching him. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Arceus, Pikachu, Dawn and Piplup sweatdropped. Croagunk croaked from beside Brock, leaving everyone perplexed as to when he had released himself from his Pokéball.

Once Officer Jenny and the nearly knocked-out Brock recovered, they all took a seat at the reception table to get an explanation as to what was happening in the city, once the police officer regained her senses, that is.

A few minutes later, Officer Jenny began again. "You see, the one that's causing all this is a Pokémon called Darkrai. Darkrai's home, New Moon Island, is very close to here, and every now and then, Darkrai comes to Canalave for unknown reasons and starts causing nightmares due to its powers," Officer Jenny explained to the group, a serious (and sleepy) look on her face.

Dawn and Brock's memory clicked. "So that's why it sounds so familiar!" Brock said as realization hit him.

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "Remember the Darkrai we met in Alamos Town? So this is why the whole concept of nightmares sounded like we'd seen it somewhere before…"

Arceus flinched visibly_. 'Ugh, I hated that case of Alamos Town, and all the dimensional tweaks I had to make to stabilize the entire area even after Palkia restored it. Why can't Dialga and Palkia get along with each other? The fact that Giratina is now in the conflict as well just makes it a great deal worse…'_ Arceus thought to himself in annoyance. He wondered what he could do to get the creation trio to get along nicely, something he had been hoping to do a for a very long time now, but no matter what he did they never seemed to listen to him and went back to arguing and fighting over the first thing that crossed their minds. He had tried being nice, strict, angry, calm, anything, and yet the creation trio still hated each other. He wondered for a second if there was even a way to get them to get along, though if he had failed in doing so for the past million years or so, he guessed there was really no way.

"Though, what I don't understand," Officer Jenny began, digging into one of her pockets and taking out what seemed to be a rather pretty feather. "I bought this Lunar Wing a few days ago to help stop the nightmares, but it hasn't had any effect!" she said sadly, looking at the aforementioned feather in confusion and disdain.

Brock stared at it. He remembered they were quite effective to countering Darkrai's powers… "May I take a closer look at it?" Brock asked politely. Officer Jenny shrugged and handed him the Lunar Wing. "Hey Dawn, do you still have that Lunar Wing you bought at Alamos Town?" Brock asked the blue-haired coordinator.

"Uh, yes I do, it's a treasured belonging," she answered. She reached under her dress and undershirt and pulled out a necklace with a very pretty (_way_ prettier than Officer Jenny's) Lunar Wing. Officer Jenny immediately noticed that Dawn's Lunar Wing seemed to shine with a goodness and light that brought warmth and a feeling of happiness and calmness over her while her own Lunar Wing was just dull and seemed to be dead, just staring at the feather made Officer Jenny feel sleepy, and comforted that she wouldn't have a single nightmare. Dawn held the feather in front of Brock.

Brock took out a magnifying glass and closely examined Dawn's Lunar Wing and Officer Jenny's Lunar Wing for a few seconds. "Hmmm, just as I thought…" he muttered. He handed Dawn the police officer's Lunar Wing. "Could you have Piplup wash it please? It's a fake."

Officer Jenny froze. "What," She said flatly.

Dawn took the fake Lunar Wing and held it in front of her starter Pokémon. "Could you wash it for me, please?" she asked sweetly. Piplup nodded and spat a small stream of water over it, soaking it completely. They noticed how the green part of the feather began to melt off, in the form of _really _poor-quality cheap paint.

Officer Jenny gasped… and then she began to shake in pure rage, several veins of irritation appearing on her forehead. "Why… those little…" she began. She looked up with fire and rage in her eyes. "I'll make them pay for scamming me!" she bellowed to the heavens as she ran out of the building, stomping dangerously with death in her eyes, leaving a very confused trio behind.

"Should we follow her?" Dawn asked after a second, tucking her treasured Lunar Wing away under her dress.

"I say yes, maybe we can get to the bottom of this," Brock said as he stood up, running after her. Arceus and Dawn followed.

…

Meanwhile, a woman and a talking Meowth dressed in ridiculous Egyptian-style clothes were standing in front of an equally ridiculous tent selling Lunar Wings. "Hehehe! Come on! Get your Lunar Wings here! Use them to keep nightmares and terrors of the night away!" Jessie shouted to the crowd as she sold them their custom-painted fake Lunar Wings.

"Come and get dem while dey're still good!" Meowth shouted happily, receiving all the money for their cheap sales. "Dis is good!" he commented to himself, counting the money as it came in.

"Um, Meowth…" James said, poking his head out of the tent and leaning in near Meowth.

The normal-type turned to look at him. "Yes?" he asked.

"We're out of Lunar Wings," he informed them while retreating back into the tent.

Jessie and Meowth nodded and turned to the eager crowd. "I'm sorry to inform you all that we're out of Lunar Wings. Please return tomorrow for more!" Jessie said to the crowd. The ones that hadn't gotten a Lunar Wing yet moaned in despair and mumbled about horrible nightmares as they walked away sadly.

Once their customers were gone, Jessie and Meowth entered the tent, laughing happily as they saw James putting together all the money they had been making at the foot of a tall and sinister-looking contraption crackling with sinister-looking energy that gleamed sinisterly. Meowth walked over and added today's sales to the pile. "Dis is good!" he said giddily. "Despite the fact dat we were blasted off a few hours ago, everything's been goin' fine, look at all da cash we've been making since we started dis racket!" He careful placed all the money in a bag and handed it to James. They changed off their weird disguise and back to their team Rocket uniforms. James carefully placed the bag under his uniform.

"Yes! This added with all that we've sold in the past few days will warrant us a few mechas and some good meals at last," James said, nodding in agreement as he patted the side of the device behind him. "Who knew that making a nightmare-inducing machine while painting cheap Pidgey feathers and passing them off as Lunar Wings could bring in so much money?" Jessie and Meowth nodded happily in agreement.

"So, that's what you were doing…" a female voice filled with unfathomable rage, fury and anger said, causing the Rocket trio to freeze on the spot from sheer terror as the voice reached them. It was Officer Jenny standing at the entrance of the tent, her eyes filled with ire and fury, and to make matters worse for them, the 'twerps' were there too. Arceus, Dawn and Brock stared at them incredulously. Hadn't they sent them blasting off just a few hours back? But as usual, they recovered all too fast.

Team Rocket tried to compose themselves. "Listen, is that a really scary and terrifying voice I hear?" Jessie asked, turning around to face Officer Jenny, Arceus, Dawn and Brock.

James nodded and turned around. "Yes, scaring and making me shiver like a helpless girl very clearly!"

Jessie took a step back as Officer Jenny's anger seemed to multiply by a thousandfold. "On the wind!" she exclaimed loudly, shivering.

James took a step back too. "Past the stars!" he followed, terrified and shivering too.

Meowth jumped behind a box so that there was something between him and Jenny. "She's too scawy!" he shrieked in terror.

"Fleeing for our lives at breakneck speed!" Jessie shouted, looking frantically for a way out.

James shivered and started gazing around as well to find an exit to escape from Officer Jenny. "Dashing our hopes to survive, putting fear in its place… Namely inside us!"

Jessie stepped backwards again. "A scare by any other name is just as terrifying!"

James followed. "When everything's scarier, our work is to run away!" Several veins of anger appeared on Jenny's forehead as an aura of anger seemed to radiate off her.

Jessie grimaced in terror "J-J-Jessie!" she stuttered.

James wet his pants. "J-Jam-e-es!" he stammered.

Meowth cowered in fear behind the box. "And Meowth, now dat's…not as scary as she is!"

Jessie took ten steps backwards. "Putting all the scary people in their place, and that's as far away from us as possible!"

James took twenty-five steps backwards. "… We're Team Rocket…"

"And we're terrified!" They all shouted, breaking up dramatically and beginning to look for a way to escape Officer Jenny's wrath.

Wobbuffet suddenly appeared in front of them and did a military-style salute... before realizing the situation and beginning to run around as well. "Wooooooooobbufet!" he said in terror.

Arceus, Brock and Dawn stared at them. This was a weird version of their motto. Arceus shivered. It was still terrible as it was a while back, but at least it wasn't as horrible as the first time he had heard it. Pikachu stared wide-eyed at them, stifling a laugh. "That one's new," he commented. Piplup nodded in agreement.

"You've been making my precious Canalave City a living nightmare town _just to make money!"_ Officer Jenny bellowed in rage, trembling from the uncontrolled fury in her. Brock, Arceus and Dawn took a step back, and for a second Arceus wondered if Officer Jenny had just been possessed by Giratina.

"Yep!" Team Rocket answered happily, nodding stupidly… before freezing when they realized the terrible mistake they had just made. "Oops…"

"Arcanine, use Fire Blast!" Officer Jenny screamed in rage, hurling her Pokéball and releasing the large canine Fire-Type. It opened its mouth and released a massive fire star towards Team Rocket and their nightmare machine, causing the machine to explode violently and send the Rocket trio flying.

"Blasted off two times in one day, now that's a new record," James remarked sadly. "Wait, there's been days where we were blasted off more…"

"Hey, look at the bright side!" Jessie said optimistically. "We've got some nice money."

"At least dat nightmare machine was really cheap," Meowth noted, grinning happily. "And we're also gettin' away from da scawy girl as fast as possible!"

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they cried as they faded to a small twinkle in the sky.

Officer Jenny sweatdropped as she stared at the flying Team Rocket while chuckling in embarrassment. "Not exactly what I was aiming for…" she mumbled. "At least the nightmare problem is solved!" she said, her mood lighting up.

"So, this means the nightmare problem is completely over!" Dawn said happily.

Officer Jenny nodded. "Well, it's already noon, and with the nightmares over…I really need to sleep," she said tiredly, relieved that the nightmare was over. "Besides kids, it's getting late, why don't you sleep at the police station? Since I guess you haven't found a place to spend the night yet."

Brock shrugged. "Sure, though we usually sleep in Pokémon centers when in the city…"

Dawn shivered as a thought occurred to her, a really scary one. "We aren't sleeping in a cell are we?" she asked worriedly.

Officer Jenny laughed. "Oh no, I didn't mean that, I have a guest room," she said reassuringly. Dawn sighed in relief.

"Well, let's go," Arceus said. The group nodded and began walking back to the Police station.

An hour or so later, the group was happily having dinner at the police station with Officer Jenny, and after enjoying a well deserved and really nice meal, they went to sleep soundly for the night, hoping to have sweet Cresselia-blessed dreams.

…

Meanwhile…on another one of the islands, covered in the darkness of night, something stirred near the charred and destroyed remains of a familiar nightmare-inducing machine. From the shadows of the wreckage of Team Rocket's machine a dark shadow began to emerge, solidifying into a phantom-like specter with a long white billowing mane, a single blue eye (the other hidden by a fleck of white hair) and an overall ghostly and hellish shape.

The Pokémon stared at the remains of the machine and laughed darkly. "Humans… they _dare_ make a cheap imitation of _my_ powers!" he bellowed angrily, dark energies crackling around him. "I'll show them what a _real_ nightmare is! Mwahahahahahahaha!" he said, laughing darkly as he slid back into the shadows, his nightmarish powers spreading malevolently throughout all of Canalave City…

* * *

Ash sighed, his eyes closed and a look of intense concentration on his face as he rested in the center of Arceus' personal room, in the deepest and holiest part of the home of the god Pokémon, the Hall of Origin. Concentrating on something for a long time was a very hard thing for Ash to do, _especially_ the overly long times that what he was currently doing required him to do, but becoming Arceus had seemingly given him the patience and emotional changes to do so. After all, the vast powers and knowledge Arceus had left for him made him feel very different, for being God required great emotional strength and many other things, something that Ash felt he had at the moment. Not that he was emotionally weak as a human, but the mental and spiritual difference between a human and a godly Pokémon was vast indeed. Thinking back, he realized he felt the same way the very second he had become Arceus. It amazed him how at the same time he felt so different and yet the same as his human self, he felt that inside he was still the same old Ash all his friends knew and loved, and yet he felt very different emotionally regarding all his new powers and how to use them, like Arceus had given him something else to ensure Ash had an easier time being God.

Ash chuckled slightly at all his trains of thought regarding how he felt and went back to the task at hand, doing some of Arceus' regular duties. He'd been having so much fun making Paul's life miserable that he guessed it was time to start doing Arceus' tasks; after all, being God wasn't all fun and games as he still had many things to take care of. He overall wanted to treasure the great opportunity he was given to prove himself as God, both with all the things he was free to do, and the many responsibilities that he had to take care of, and he wanted to do a good job at it to show Arceus he had made a good choice in picking him as his temporary replacement.

Currently he was doing regular "maintenance" to the fabric of reality, to the continuums of time, space and existence itself, making sure nothing strange tried to damage it and that it ran perfectly in order to sustain itself. To do so, he tapped into all the knowledge Arceus had kindly left for him so he could do it properly without having to worry about messing it up himself.

He calmly verified the condition of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina's personal dimensions, seeing that the fights they had been having hadn't caused any new damage considering all the bickering the trio had been into recently. Arceus had left him an indication to check it up on them constantly, and he knew it was true considering he had been caught in the middle of two of the most recent cataclysmic fights of the creation trio…though he also noted that neither of the three were in their appointed homes. He wondered where they could be now…oh well, he put the matter aside and continued with his job.

He also answered the prayers of the many, _many_ mortals that begged for some kind of miracle, like to heal their sickness, or grant a blessing to their daily life, just to name a few. Whatever the case, it surprised Ash how his new mind was able to process the sheer number of them so easily. He felt odd, yet at the same time marveled at how easy it was, despite the numbers, but he guessed it came with the position of supreme deity.

He also saw that some nasty natural disasters didn't happen if they weren't supposed to, or if they were caused by some other Legendary Pokémon acting silly.

He had been doing this for several hours now and realized it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be; it was _very_ tiring, that he had to admit, but it wasn't as difficult as it seemed and that was good.

Ash couldn't help but sigh in boredom. Sure the job was easy, but he found it sometimes a bit mundane, spending hours and hours of concentration and expanding his powers and feelings to do Arceus' duties correctly and look for the overall welfare of existence. He still found it nice to lend a hand and offer blessings here and there; it made him feel good about himself.

After a few more hours, he decided to call it off. He guessed that by now it must be night in Sinnoh. He wondered what to do for the time being. Sure it was night, but he didn't feel the least bit sleepy. He attributed this to now being God, he doubted that with his now endless supply of power he would get tired easily, though doing this continuously for such an overly long time was probably extremely irritating and tiring, as that was one of the main reasons Arceus decided to take some time off. After all, he had most likely been doing this for… well, since existence began, and that was a lot of time to spend without taking a vacation.

Ash turned and walked out of Arceus' personal room, which of course was now temporarily his, and walked along the hallways of the Pokémon' home quietly, looking around the place in a silent manner, wondering what to do for now. He guessed Mew would be telling Lugia and Ho-Oh to come really soon, something that excited him to no end. He wondered how they would be now that he would get to know them a lot better, to actually talk and interact with them without worrying about the world being in danger or something like that, and on more… equal terms.

He paced around the Hall of Origin for a while in a quiet fashion, just resting from what he'd been doing earlier. After a while, he found himself arriving at the main hall.

He walked into the main hall, seeing everything was normal for the time being. He paused and relaxed for a bit, enjoying the calm settings…well, calm except for two rather _big _presences coming towards the Hall of Origin at a very fast speed. He paused, wondering what could be up. One of them was in the lead and coming rather fast, and the other was a few minutes back. Ash blinked, wondering who they were. It was a bit too soon for them to be Ho-Oh and Lugia...

Suddenly, the front doors of the Hall of Origin burst open, causing Ash to recoil in surprise and fear at the same time at who was on his doorstep, a very big (perhaps even bigger than Arceus) bipedal white and bright _pink _dragon with a long neck and a pearl on each shoulder, though something was wrong, his body was covered in numerous bruises, cuts, injuries, concussions and he had a very pained look on his face. "Ahhhh! Help!" Palkia yelped in fear, getting into the Hall of Origin and closing the doors frantically, pressing his body against them, as if trying to keep something-–or _someone_-out, causing Ash to stare at him in confusion, and to grimace as he examined the dragon's condition.

Since someone foreign was here and he had to impersonate Arceus, Ash tapped into the knowledge he had of Arceus' personality and changed his speech and tone to sound as Arceus-ish as he could. "What's going on?" Ash asked in confusion. He sensed the second presence was getting closer and closer, and whoever it was, it was _mad_, extremely mad, at least from the emotions he could pick up from the one approaching.

Palkia breathed quickly, trying to calm himself down, his voice quivering and a paranoid look on his face. "It's Giratina! She's gone crazy!" he shouted in terror. "She's been chasing me for a freaking week now beating me up! No matter what I say she just keeps attacking and attacking!"

Ash blinked. He remembered Giratina had been mad about that whole Zero thing, made even worse when Shaymin kept thinking Giratina was going to eat her and didn't make a portal for her, and the damage to the Reverse World made it even _worse_, but if he recalled correctly, after the Zero ordeal Giratina had been chasing Dialga, not Palkia. Maybe Dialga managed to evade Giratina and Palkia was the current unlucky victim? Ash looked at the space dragon. "Palkia, what's the meaning of all this?" he asked as regally as he could.

Palkia managed to catch his breath for a second. "Dad, help me! You see, Dialga and I got into a… small argument… yes, small argument, and polluted the Reverse world, but it was an accident, and now Giratina is fuming mad at us and she started chasing Dialga to 'teach her a lesson' but missed her, and now she's trying to beat me up instead!" Palkia cried in terror, already feeling the trauma of fleeing from an angry Giratina for seven days straight. "Though… after Giratina's done with me she's probably going back to beat up Dialga…"

'_That explains the injuries…'_ Ash thought to himself, feeling a bit angered that to Palkia and Dialga that whole Alamos Town war had been just a 'small argument' between the two deities. Maybe since it was Dialga and Palkia's fight that had started all those problems in the Reverse World, perhaps that's what had given Zero the perfect chance to strike and attempt to steal Giratina's powers, causing the Renegade Pokémon's anger. _'And 'Dad?' They call Arceus their dad? Weird… I better act like one...'_

"Palkia, you know it's a very bad thing to fight like that, and even more so causing so much destruction. It's your fault alone that you are in such a predicament," Ash scolded him, hoping he sounded like Arceus.

Palkia seemed to be too worried about Giratina and his injuries to try to wonder if Arceus was somehow different. "I know! I know! When those two little humans pleaded me to fix everything me and Dialga had done, I did! I even apologized!" he said, trying to excuse it before Arceus. "…But I doubt they understood me… but it's the intention that counts!"

Ash rolled his eyes._ 'Oh, so that's what Palkia was trying to say back then…' _he thought to himself. "Have you tried apologizing to Giratina?" he asked, wondering if perhaps a good apology would suit the angered dragoness.

"Ugh, yes! But she doesn't listen!" Palkia snapped back. "She's just yelling how much she's going to torture me and all!"

"Paaaaaalkia! Your tail is mine! Get back here so I can kill you!" a massive female voice _roared_ so loud and harshly that it made both Ash and Palkia cringe in terror, and of course it made Palkia turn chalk-white from the sheer fear.

Ash turned to Palkia. "Aren't you as strong as her? Defend yourself!" he told the space Dragon.

Palkia grimaced. "Well, you see, during my small argument with Dialga, one of my shoulder-pearls was severely damaged, and those are the sources of my power. As such, even after it was healed, I am still in a delicate condition power-wise, so I'm still recovering. That's probably why Dialga managed to escape Giratina, she's at full power while I'm weakened! And of course, Giratina is taking advantage of me not being at one hundred percent!" Palkia answered, bracing the door while using his space powers to make the molecules that made up the door and room harder than diamond… since he hated diamonds (for obvious reasons).

"Oh, so that's why," Ash muttered, remembering all the trouble he and Dawn went through to play the song _Oración_ to calm them down, and miraculously fix Palkia's pearl, though they hadn't expected that to happen.

"Ugh, dad! Talk her into leaving me alone, please! I don't want her killing me!" Palkia said in terror, seeing as he was currently weakened and Giratina was at peak power.

They both heard the sound of something massive colliding against the door. "Palkia, open this door now and face me like a real male! You're _SO DEAD_!" Giratina bellowed from behind the door, causing Ash to actually take a step back.

Palkia laughed. "Ha! I altered the space that makes up here and reinforced the entire place with my powers! You aren't even going to scratch it!" he said mockingly… and he got silence as his only answer. His laughter died down when he realized what he had just done and that he'd probably just sealed his grave, though… maybe Giratina wouldn't be able to get in… Palkia took a couple of steps back from the door, looking it over.

Suddenly he heard Giratina's evil laugh. "Palkia… you just sealed your grave," she said in a dangerous tone that made Palkia shiver.

Suddenly, she phased through the door using Shadow Force. Being a ghost-type, this was one of her specialties. Palkia started at her in disbelief. "Oh, not fair!" He jumped behind Ash to make sure something was between him and Giratina, even if it was their own father. "Tell her to stop trying to rip me apart!" he cried in fear, clutching Ash's midsection wheel.

"Why me? You're the one that got her angry!" Ash snapped back at Palkia.

"Actually, it was both me and Dialga," he corrected, wanting to include the temporal deity in the guilt as well.

"Palkia…" Giratina began, catching both Ash's and the pink dragon's attentions. "It's yours and Dialga's faults that my home got so polluted and unstable! I'm going to make you pay for it, and after I'm done with you, I'm going to return to hunting down Dialga…" she said dangerously. "But first, I need to finish you off!" She opened her jaws, a massive orb of shadows gathering.

"Aaaaahhhhhh! Dad, make her stop!" Palkia said in terror, dreading already to feel another of the ghost dragoness' attacks. Giratina fired the Shadow Ball. Palkia tried to hide behind Ash, but since Ash was currently a normal-type, the ghostly energy ball passed right through him, smashing into Palkia, causing the weakened dragon to cry out in pain.

Ash glared at the angry dragoness. "Giratina, stop!" he said firmly, standing between Palkia and Giratina. Sure he knew Palkia and Dialga had begun the problem, but attacking Palkia so viciously wasn't right either.

Giratina glared back at him, her eyes filled with fury. "Stop… stop…" she repeated, chuckling darkly, her body quivering from anger. "I don't have any fault in this! I was residing calmly in my home, unprovoked and without doing anything harmful, and then those two idiots Dialga and Palkia got into yet another fight, or 'argument' as they stupidly call it, even bigger than the last one and caused their two dimensions to collide, and you know what that means? Of course you do, _my_ Reverse World has to take the damage to make sure those dimensions aren't destroyed completely, and as such it got horribly polluted and I had to be one to take care of it, oh, and the kicker is the weakening of the dimensional barriers and the Reverse World itself gave some miserable human with a completely ridiculous suit and machine that was supposed to look like _me _the damn perfect opportunity to fucking try to _kill_ me just to steal my powers! I almost died! And worse, I couldn't even do anything to get out because Dialga had the brilliant idea to time-lock me in my own dimension so she could escape, and that meant I had to find another way out, which I did, but that stupid plant-brain Shaymin kept thinking I was going to _eat her_ for some stupid reason and wouldn't do me the damn favor of opening a portal for me, do you have any idea how I was feeling? And Dialga and Palkia couldn't care less! They just wanted to keep arguing with each other without a care in the world as I nearly died because of their stupid fights, had it not been for a group of nice humans, especially a boy with a Pikachu, who actually cared for me I wouldn't be ranting at you right now, and now, to top it all, you, _are defending Palkia_!" Giratina ranted angrily, glaring at Ash and the cowering Palkia with so much hate that it could probably kill them both on the spot, causing Ash to wince at several points of her rant, wishing he could have done more for her in that particular adventure. Ash didn't exactly approve of some of her word choices, he wasn't exactly fond of cursing, but then again, she was mad.

Palkia couldn't help but look at her sadly, realizing that perhaps he and Dialga had taken this too far. He was sure it was Dialga's fault, not his, but the guilt was still there. "Hey Giratina, I already said I was sorry!" he reminded her, trying to calm the very pissed-off dragon.

Giratina roared in rage, causing Palkia to cower behind Ash. "'Sorry' isn't going to fix anything!"

Palkia grimaced. "It was Dialga's fault!" he said quickly, trying to get off the hook.

Giratina glared daggers at him. "It was the fault of _both _you!" she snapped at him. "See, Father! They are the problem, and you're painting me as the bad Pokémon here!"

"Uhh…" Ash hesitated for a moment, wondering what to do. Giratina couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion; Arceus never hesitated or felt unsure, he always had a solution there on the spot. "Listen Giratina, sure Palkia and Dialga are at fault for starting all this, but attacking him isn't going to solve anything," Ash said after a moment's thought.

Giratina shook her head. "Oh yes it will." With a dark chuckle she disappeared as she used Shadow Force, Ash's eyes widened as she completely vanished from his senses. He looked around worriedly, searching for Giratina.

Palkia looked around worriedly. He knew Giratina would target him, so his shoulders pearls glowed as he amplified his senses a thousandfold, sensing even the most minuscule disturbance in the molecules of existence itself. He whirled around and held both arms forward as his claws glowed with a Dragon Claw attack. Not a second later, Giratina appeared suddenly and smashed harshly into him. He winced in pain as he tried to block her with his own attack, but his attack was overpowered by Giratina's. He cried out in pain as Giratina slammed into him, ghostly energies coursing through his body. Giratina wasn't done, however; she quickly fired a Dragon Pulse at point-blank range, smashing Palkia into one of the walls of the Hall of Origin with a big explosion. "Owwwhhh…" Palkia muttered in pain, feeling dizzy from the attacks.

Before Giratina could continue attacking the weakened space dragon, Ash quickly stepped between them. "Giratina, I know you're mad, but this isn't the way to solve it," Ash said, trying to reason with her.

Giratina didn't listen to him as her body began to crackle in an eerie energy as a sphere of fiery aura gathered in her jaws. Due to her blinding fury, it was tinted a crimson and black color.

Ash pondered his possibilities. He could turn to ghost type and become immune to the attack, but that meant it would pass through him and hit Palkia. He decided to block the attack. He concentrated on himself as he began to glow slightly, his wheel and hooves beginning to change color as he switched to the Psychic-Type.

Giratina fired the Aura Sphere and vanished instantly after that as she used a rapid Shadow Force. Ash's eyes glowed as he used a powerful telekinetic wave to break the Aura Sphere apart, but he was unable to react in time as Giratina smashed into him with Shadow Force, causing him to cry out in pain and get slammed to a wall as his Psychic-typing made him weak to the Ghost-type move. Giratina frowned. Arceus wouldn't fall for such a simple tactic, and he had an incredible pain tolerance. Such an attack should barely even make him flinch or cry out in pain, plus his voice sounded different from what she remembered. She hummed, realizing something was…off.

Palkia used Giratina's distraction to try to escape as silently as possible. He tiptoed as quickly as he could until a black ragged wing with three sharp spikes blocked his path. "Going somewhere?" Giratina asked him.

Palkia nodded. "Yes, away from you!" he screamed. Giratina glared at him. "Oh come on! I could have attacked you while you were distracted but I didn't because I want this to end! I'm honestly sorry! I really mean it! When will you stop?"

Giratina chuckled darkly, sending a shiver up Palkia's back. "I think I'll consider being done with you when you stop breathing."

"You crazy psycho bitch!" Palkia cursed at her.

Giratina chuckled and looked away, fidgeting slightly as if she was embarrassed, clearly in a fake and mocking way. "Oh why thank you, I'm very flattered," she said in a lighter voice, which just seemed to make her even _scarier_. Palkia stared at her in disbelief.

Giratina lunged at him, fully intent on ripping him apart. Palkia quickly stepped sideways, evading Giratina's charge, but she didn't stop the assault. She spun in place as her wing spikes began to glow harshly in the form of a customized Dragon Claw/Shadow Claw combination attack. "Oh crap…" Palkia muttered, and with good reason. Giratina's ragged wing slashed at him, leaving three long and deep bloodied cuts on Palkia's chest. Palkia stumbled back in pain, clutching his chest. "Ohh, you little bitch!" he muttered, his voice strained with pain.

"Giratina, stop!" Ash bellowed angrily, once again a normal-type, quickly moving to position himself between Giratina and the wounded space dragon. He was genuinely worried for Palkia's wellbeing, then again, him being the deity of space and who knows how many trillions of years old Ash guessed he'd taken worse beatings, but he was nonetheless worried. In his worry for the space dragon's safety, he unknowingly dropped his Arceus voice for a split instant. "There is no need to resort to violence to solve something like this!" he stated firmly.

Giratina frowned, sensing something odd from her father and creator. She gazed back at him. "No thanks, I don't do peaceful talks."

"Palkia may have caused all that damage to your world along with Dialga, but it can all be fixed peacefully, there's no need to beat him up like that!" Ash said, hoping to change Giratina's mind.

Giratina shook her head. "Yes, there is a need to beat him up. I need to vent my anger on something don't I? Plus, it's not like things will be any better if he gets away with nothing but a simple slap in the wrist, and it's his and Dialga's damn fault this entire mess started! Don't try to defend the one that's guilty!"

"The fact they started it doesn't give you an excuse to continue it," Ash said serenely, hoping again to calm the very pissed off Dragoness.

"The hell it does!" she cursed. Palkia meanwhile began to slowly walk away.

"It doesn't! If you took the initiative, everything could be solved peacefully," Ash countered, knowing that was something Arceus would say.

"There's not much point to discussing everything peacefully if Dialga and Palkia never listen to it!" Giratina snapped back angrily.

"Try to get them to listen, I'm sure that peaceful talks can be achieved between them," Ash said positively.

Giratina laughed mockingly. "Sure and now I love the color pink," she said sarcastically. "Those two are never going to listen to reason when it comes to their petty arguments!"

"No one is getting killed today, Giratina," Ash said sternly.

Giratina grinned in a scary manner. "That's easy to change."

Meanwhile Palkia stared at them and pondered his possibilities. If he tried to flee from the Hall of Origin Giratina would certainly catch up to him and just make his suffering greater, and Giratina seemed to be somehow getting the upper-hand against Arceus, who had been acting very weird… but then he got an idea. Maybe if he dragged Dialga here, they could solve the problem with Arceus now. The God Pokémon was usually a very good moderator, and maybe they could all walk out happily with everything resolved, or just make it worse… but at least if that failed, then he could just pit Giratina against Dialga and let them kill each other while he fled to recover from his injuries. So yes, he decided to bring Dialga over to either try to find a solution, or use the temporal dragoness as an escape method. He nodded to himself as he prepared to open a space portal and bring in Dialga…

"Ugh! What will it take to make you understand!" Giratina spat angrily at Ash. "None of your chats and reprimands are ever going to get past either Dialga or Palkia's thick skulls, so save yourself the need to!"

"No," Ash said firmly, still doing his best to mimic Arceus' tone and feelings.

"So, okay," Giratina began, rolling her eyes. "You talk to them, reprimand them, tell them to not do it again and twenty minutes later they're killing each other again. When will you learn?"

Ash shook his head. "And you suggest that hurting them is a better option?"

"Yes," Giratina answered, shrugging. "It's a good start with those two morons. Naturally I don't care when they go around and kill each other, but it does piss me off that when they do so they cause my home to be polluted, and what got me so angry this time around is it almost got me fucking killed! That's where I draw the line!" she roared angrily, almost causing Ash to take a step back from the slightly larger dragoness. Again, he didn't exactly approve of such a choice of words, but he felt that pointing that out right now was not the best of choices.

"Listen Giratina, I know you're very angry, but unnecessary violence isn't the road to a better solution. Attacking Palkia will just breed more violence between you two, and when he gets better, he'll attack you back, creating a never-ending cycle of hatred between you two, and Dialga as well. The best solution would be to calmly talk things out, find a way that lets all three of you walk out happy and satisfied," Ash said serenely. He couldn't help but pause slightly. '_Wow, saying that was awesome! That leftover knowledge is certainly being handy, I hope if gets Giratina to calm down. I wish I could have done more to prevent her from almost getting killed, then maybe this wouldn't have happened,'_ Ash thought sadly to himself.

Giratina was about to say another angry comment, when a certain voice screeched through the air that made her grin anxiously. "Paaaaaalkia!" Dialga screamed angrily, staring at the space dragon with a death glare on her face.

"Hi Dialga…" Palkia said uneasily, taking a few steps back. Ash and Giratina turned to see Palkia walking back, while the blue temporal dragoness was standing in front of a big pink portal that slowly closed.

Ash sighed, feeling slightly frightened at the sight of the temporal dragon_. 'Oh just what I needed, another pissed-off dragon, why did you have to bring her here Palkia!'_ he thought miserably. Palkia and Giratina were bad enough as it was! For a moment he actually considered joining up with all the Palkia loathing that seemed to be going around, but he knew he was supposed to be looking for a way to create coexistence between the three dragons. Oh well… he blinked when he realized something. Dialga was a girl? He certainly didn't expect _that_.

The Renegade Pokémon's attention on Dialga snapped when she heard a small tired breath. She turned her head slightly to see Arceus sighing with an uncertain and perhaps… afraid? Yeah, an afraid look on his face. That was odd, Arceus never looked at Dialga, Palkia or herself in such a manner. Despite all problems they constantly gave him, he would never be afraid or uncertain around them, he would always be clear and firm on how to do things. Giratina hummed, wondering if her earlier thoughts on something being off were correct. _'Father seems to be in an off mood today. I'd better keep a close eye on him. In the meantime…' _she trailed off as she resumed focusing her attention on Dialga.

"You!" Giratina roared, attracting the temporal Pokémon's attention.

Dialga turned, saw Giratina and scowled. "You again? I thought I lost you!"Dialga exclaimed.

Giratina glared at the Steel and Dragon type angrily. "You almost got me killed, you pathetic excuse of a clock!"

Dialga blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You time-locking me in my dimension gave a human the perfect opportunity to try to kill me and steal my powers, you idiot!" Giratina screeched angrily.

Dialga growled at her angrily. "Hey! Don't take it out on me! It was you who decided to attack me and pull me into that pit of death you call your world!" she retorted, though for a second Dialga felt a stab of guilt. Sure her relation with Giratina wasn't the best, but outright getting her killed was something she wouldn't do, that was taking it way too far. She felt genuinely sorry.

Giratina scoffed. "Don't try to wriggle off the hook, it was you that started all this by damaging and polluting my world!" she countered, glaring at the temporal dragoness.

Dialga glared back at Giratina defiantly. "You say it like it's all our fault! Who's the one that started hunting me down? You aren't exactly in the right here!"

In the meantime, Palkia slowly walked to the exit of the Hall of Origin, hoping that the two dragoness' bickering would distract them long enough for him to recover. He began to approach the gates only for a pair of Dragon Pulses to smash a few feet in front of him, causing him to recoil in surprise. "Going anywhere?" Dialga asked him.

"Oh come on!" Palkia exclaimed in exasperation.

Dialga chuckled. "Oh my, looks like Giratina did quite the number on you. I like it."

Palkia stared at Giratina, terrified. "That crazy psycho bitch is taking advantage of my still being weakened from our fight!"

Dialga nodded in approval. "A wound inflicted happily by yours truly. And crazy psycho bitch? That's very fitting for Giratina," she commented, snickering.

Giratina looked at Dialga with a very sweet expression, which just made her look _scary_. "Why thank you, that's very kind," she said lightly. Dialga looked at her uneasily and backed away.

Giratina suddenly glared at Dialga and Palkia. "I was almost killed! And look, you two don't even care! I am going to make both of you pay dearly!"

Dialga glared at Palkia. "It was his fault it all started!"

At the same time, Palkia pointed at Dialga. "She started it!"

Palkia and Dialga stared at each other. "What are you talking about?" they roared at the same time.

Giratina looked between them. "I don't care who started it! Both were involved!" she told them, growling and baring fangs, claws and spikes ominously as she glared at them. Palkia and Dialga eagerly returned the glares, and they glared at each other was well.

Dialga took a few steps back and got ready, chest diamond glowing slightly as time seemed to ripple oddly around her. "Bring it!"

Palkia did the same; albeit reluctantly, knowing that if he backed off that might end up in both dragonesses double-teaming him, and he was already beat up enough as it was. Ash in the meantime frowned as he watched their bickering. He couldn't help but feel sad at the sheer amount of hate and loathing he felt coming off the three dragons before him. He was frozen in place, wondering why the three dragons hated each other so much. Seeing that they were ready to start another battle, he decided to intervene.

Just as Dialga, Palkia and Giratina were about to lunge at each other, Ash's voice boomed, "Stop, all three of you!"

All three dragons stopped immediately, though Giratina paused in thought and narrowed her piercing red eyes_. 'Hmm, father took a very long while, longer than usual, to get involved. This is getting suspicious…'_ she mumbled mentally to herself.

Palkia sighed in relief, as he wasn't in shape to battle at the moment. Ash nodded as all three creator dragons turned to look at him. "Listen, fighting is not going to solve anything."

Dialga rolled her eyes. Oh great, another Arceus lecture. Giratina scoffed and glared at both Dialga and Palkia, while Palkia looked relieved. Giratina chuckled. "Now what, father? You're going to lecture us, and then when you're done ten seconds later Dialga and Palkia are already fighting again, it's the same thing every time," she said snidely.

Ash frowned. "Uhmmm… well…" he hesitated. For a moment he actually wondered what to say. Arceus was very good when it came to giving lectures, but even he failed to get the creation trio to get along, so what hope did he have? How could he get Dialga, Palkia and Giratina to get along when even their father Arceus failed?

Ash's hesitance didn't go unnoticed to a certain dragoness. Giratina looked at Ash sharply. _'Father never hesitates, I know that! No matter what Dialga and Palkia… or me do. Ever since I arrived he's been acting weird, something's clearly up,'_ she thought. She doubted Dialga noticed anything as she had just arrived, and Palkia was probably too beat up to think about it.

"Listen you three, you've been fighting for a very long time now, but where is it going to get you?" Ash asked them in a very calm and collected Arceus-ish tone.

Palkia and Dialga looked at each other uneasily for a second before they started to growl at each other angrily. Ash sighed. Giratina chuckled. "Well, beating them up might get them to understand that they shouldn't fight because they'll harm my world!"

Dialga glared at Giratina. "Your world this, your world that, can't you say something else!"

Giratina glared back. "How would you feel if I messed up your dimension?"

Dialga growled at her. "I'd pulverize you!"

Giratina laughed. "Oh, see? But you know what the difference here is? You and that pink moron nearly got me killed! I'd like to see what you thought if I nearly killed you, which I'm very gladly about to do!"

Dialga shrugged. "You got careless," she said off-handedly. Giratina growled angrily.

Ash shook his head in disdain. "Alright, cut it out!" he said firmly. The creation trio looked at him. "You've been fighting for so long; do you two even remember why you started fighting in the first place?" Ash asked them, glancing specifically at Dialga and Palkia.

Palkia and Dialga nodded. "Yes!" they exclaimed at the same time.

Ash's eyes narrowed. "Really? What is it?" he asked, hoping that hearing the reason they started all this would help him find a solution.

Palkia opened his mouth to speak… and realized he didn't have a clue. "Good question… I thought I knew," he muttered Mareepishly and found that looking through millions and millions of years of memories for a single moment was harder than it seemed.

Dialga laughed. Ash turned to her. "What about you?" he asked.

The temporal dragoness paused for a second. "Ehh… that's a really good question," she muttered, facing the same problem as Palkia.

Giratina shook her head sadly. "Idiots," she mumbled under her breath.

Ash smiled mentally. This was a good breach to exploit. "See? You don't even remember why you two fight so much. Why not leave it all in the past and just be friends?" he implied, hoping that this would work.

Palkia and Dialga stared at each other in horror. "I'm not going to be friends with that!" both said at the same time. They glared at each other angrily afterward.

Giratina chuckled darkly. "Good, more excuses for me to beat up both of you."

Dialga growled at her. "Shut up!" she told the Renegade Pokémon. "What's between Palkia and me is none of your business!"

Giratina laughed. "Really? Well, you two messing up my world makes it my business!"

Dialga, her patience worn thin, grinned. A Dragon Pulse smashed into Giratina, causing the Renegade Pokémon to growl in surprise. "When did you send that!"

Dialga laughed. "Ten minutes in the future," she answered smugly. Suddenly a Shadow Force smashed into her. "Oww…"

Giratina chuckled darkly. "Before you ask, I sent that now."

Dialga growled, her chest diamond glowing as she readied her powers. "Why you…"

Ash snapped. "Enough!"

Palkia took a step away. "I didn't do anything!" he said quickly. Dialga and Giratina glared at him.

Ash stared at them as an idea hit him. "You three better stop fighting or I'm locking you in your dimensions!" he threatened.

None of the three dragons looked even remotely surprised. "Eh, father, you've done that before, didn't work," Giratina said, rolling her eyes.

Ash paused, wondering what to do, earning him another look from Giratina that he failed to notice. "What am I going to do with you three…" he said in a weary voice.

"Let me kill them?" Giratina asked hopefully. Dialga glared at her and Palkia took a few steps away from her.

Ash shook his head. "No."

"Oh, what do you want then? They nearly killed me and I don't get to kill them back? Not fair," Giratina growled angrily.

"Giratina," Ash began, looking at the Renegade Pokémon. "I already told you, harming Dialga and Palkia for their actions isn't going to solve anything, if anything, it'll just make the problem worse! So cut it out!"

Giratina laughed. "Oh, how wonderful, and you suggest letting them go with a reprimand is good enough, how typical," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Palkia looked at Giratina. "I told you already, I'm sorry!" he reminded her for the hundredth time.

Giratina slashed at Palkia with a Shadow Claw. The space dragon barely managed to step back in time to avoid it. "I'll consider accepting that apology when you die! A simple sorry is never enough!" she roared angrily.

Ash quickly put himself between Giratina and Palkia. "A sorry _is_ enough." He said firmly.

Giratina laughed mockingly. "Really?"

Ash nodded. "Yes. If he really means it, an apology can mean a lot, more than harming him could truly mean for you."

Giratina stared at him with a disgusted look. "Now you're getting philosophical. I hate that."

Dialga sighed, admitting that they had taken it too far this time. "I guess, in my point of view a sorry would be enough," she said.

Giratina laughed mockingly. "Oh, getting all soft? Think I'm going to accept a simple sorry for all the trouble you've caused?"

Dialga glared at her angrily. "I'm trying to be nice!"

Giratina glared back. "Heh, that's not gonna solve anything."

Dialga turned to Ash. "It is! Tell her!"

Giratina turned to Ash as well. "It's not!"

Palkia turned to Ash as well, wanting to voice his opinion despite not being in the immediate argument. "It is!"

Ash looked between the three nervously, wondering what to say. He suddenly felt very overwhelmed under the intense stare of the three deities. "Uh…" Ash said uneasily. Giratina's eyes narrowed dangerously. She saw it, the look of nervousness, of uncertainty… Arceus wasn't like that. Ash paused. "Giratina, sorry, but Palkia and Dialga are right, giving and receiving a good and sincere apology can solve many things."

Giratina snapped. That was it. She walked forward and glared at Ash, causing him to take a step back in surprise. "You aren't fooling me anymore," she said in a cold tone.

Ash looked at her perplexed, as did Palkia and Dialga. "What are you talking about?" Ash asked, clearly confused. Ash stared at Giratina, and the Renegade Pokémon glared back at him, directly into his eyes. Red eyes met red eyes, both staring into each other's eyes deeply. Ash wasn't sure what to do, if he should break or keep eye contact, Giratina's look felt so… powerful, like she was looking at his very soul…and the truth was becoming clear.

Both kept the eye contact for a few seconds, neither daring to break it. Giratina's eyes narrowed dangerously, then, all of a sudden, she jumped backwards, landing and lowering herself slightly, claws, fangs and wing spikes outstretched and looking more dangerous than ever. Ash took a slight jump backwards in fright from her aggressive reaction. "You aren't Arceus, you're an imposter!" Giratina declared boldly. Dialga and Palkia blinked and looked between 'Arceus' and Giratina, while Ash's blood went cold.

'_Uh-Oh… this is bad,'_ Ash thought to himself, panic starting to overtake him as he stared at the battle-ready Giratina and the still confused Dialga and Palkia…

* * *

Somewhere else, high above the clouds…

A very large avian Pokémon with a colorful plumage was soaring calmly through the sky, her radiant body releasing a heartwarming and beautiful pure golden glow that seemed to emit from every individual feather. She left a precious rainbow trailing behind her, her altitude so high that no being could see her from ground level. Ho-Oh flew in a relaxed manner, feeling the sun caress her feathers and the wind gust by her. It had been a really calm day, with no perks or nothing surprising, just the usual. She had been getting a bit bored, so she wondered when something interesting was going to happen, though if her guess was correct, it wasn't going to be for a long while…

She was wrong, very wrong. "Hi Goldie," Mew greeted her casually, relaxing on top of her head calmly with a soft and adorable smile on her face.

Ho-Oh squawked in alarm and surprise. She nearly lost her balance of flight and flapped her wings quickly to stabilize herself. "Mew!" she said in annoyance, a scolding undertone to her voice, she glared up to the smaller pink Legendary.

Mew giggled happily. She loved scaring other Legendaries like this, usually it worked better on non-psychic legendaries as they had no way to sense Mew coming until it wastoo late. She floated up from Ho-Oh's head and flew in front of her. "Oh, just coming to pay a small visit," Mew said offhandedly, trying to act as innocent as possible.

Ho-Oh didn't believe her one bit, knowing that Mew generally went to meet up with other legends with 'playing' on her mind all the time. The fact that the scare she got was a good one too didn't help much. She guessed Mew must have teleported up to her head without her noticing… but she decided to be polite and talk to her. "Mew…" Ho-Oh began. "I guess it is a surprise, it's been a while since I last saw you, but you know I'm not exactly the best when it comes to entertainment and playing…" She paused when she remembered what Mew had just called her. "And stop calling me Goldie!"

The Psychic legendary laughed happily. "Aww, but it's such a cute nickname for you! I mean, golden is your favorite color and you like glowing in gold," Mew reminded the sky Legendary.

Ho-Oh huffed, admitting it was true, but she still didn't like how 'Goldie' sounded. It sounded too girly even for her… and admittedly Mew-ish. "Goldie… heh…" Ho-Oh chuckled, going over the nickname Mew had been calling her the past several millennia or so. She wondered why Mew had to call her that instead of her name, Ho-Oh.

"Because Ho-Oh sounds too boring, formal, paused, repetitive and weird," Mew answered happily.

Ho-Oh glared at her, realizing she had read her thoughts. "I just had to think it…" she mumbled.

Mew smiled at Ho-Oh, noticing that the Rainbow Legendary Pokémon was flapping her wings constantly. She remembered that staying in the air in one same spot took up more energy than straight flight for non-levitating Pokémon. She decided to generate a psychic platform for Ho-Oh to roost comfortably on, her eyes glowing as she created it. "For once, I didn't come to ask you to play with me…though I could ask for that too while I'm at it," she said, laughing faintly.

Ho-Oh noticed the platform and lowered herself to it to rest. She looked at Mew gratefully. "Thanks," she said. She would have smiled back at her, but beaks were terrible when it came to smiles. She knew Mew would psychically get the gesture of gratitude.

"You're welcome," Mew answered, floating calmly where she was, lightly playing with her tail. "So… you sure you don't wanna play with me?" she asked curiously, trying to see if today was her lucky day.

"No," Ho-Oh answered instantly, causing Mew to moan in disappointment. "But I am curious, you said you came looking for me to ask for something else other than playing. May I ask what?" she said, voice filled with curiosity.

"Well…" Mew started, wondering how to put what she had to say. Ho-Oh just raised an eyebrow and stared at Mew patiently. "Let's say you've got a new task for now."

Ho-Oh paused at that. "A new task you say? Issued by Arceus?"

Mew nodded. "Yep, ordered by Arceus himself."

Ho-Oh stared at her. "Oh, really? What is it?" she asked, wondering what the God Pokémon wanted of her. Being one of the most responsible legends, she would comply as she always did.

Mew grinned happily. "It's being my playmate forever!" She said sweetly, doing some happy twirls in the air.

Ho-Oh facepalmed (or facewinged?). "Mew, you've got to be kidding me."

Mew laughed cutely. "Yes, I'm kidding," she said.

The Fire-Type Legendary sweatdropped, staring incredulously. Typical Mew antics. "Okay Mew, enough is enough, what's the new task I got from Arceus?" she asked, her tone serious.

Mew frowned sadly. "You're always so boring!" she complained.

Ho-Oh laughed. "Mew, it's because it's an assignment from Arceus. It's serious and not to be taken lightly." Mew kept staring at Ho-Oh with a sad and teary face. She sighed. "Okay, I'll play with you later," she said. Even though she wasn't exactly playful or a fan of Mew's antics or games, she still disliked seeing someone as happy and cheerful as Mew sad, so that would cheer her up plus it might make Mew talk regarding her assignment a bit faster. Or maybe she might get her Legendary beast trio to entertain Mew in her place, since she was their creator, they had to obey her…yes, she might do that…

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Mew squealed in delight, flying around Ho-Oh happily. The rainbow legend tried to keep up with her twirls but failed. Mew suddenly tackled-hugged Ho-Oh, not really even making her move, then again Mew was relatively tiny compared to the Rainbow Legend. "Hug!" Mew chimed happily. Ho-Oh rolled her eyes, though she decided to comply so as not to sadden the smaller pink legend again. She wrapped her wings over Mew in a semblance of a hug. The Pink psychic-type grinned cheerfully, nuzzling into Ho-Oh's warm feathers.

"So Mew," Ho-Oh began. "What's my current assignment?" she asked kindly, opening her wings as Mew flew out of her warm embrace.

"Oh, you see, Arcy has been getting stressed recently, and I managed to talk him into taking a vacation," she answered. "He wants you and Lugia to be his substitute's assistants."

Ho-Oh hummed lightly. "Arceus is taking a break from his duties? Wow, I never thought something like that would ever happen," she muttered. "So, how much of his powers did he leave this replacement?" she asked curiously.

"All of them. Arceus is temporarily mortal to get his mind off god-related things for now, and to enjoy a more carefree lifestyle," Mew answered, doing a happy twirl in the air.

Ho-Oh gave a small start as her beak dropped in astonishment. She nearly tripped on the platform Mew had kindly generated for her. "Now that that is completely unexpected… is he going to be alright?" she asked in concern, wondering how Mew had convinced Arceus of all legendaries to try becoming a mortal.

Mew nodded. "Don't worry, I'm constantly spending time with him, and the group of Humans and Pokémon he's staying with is very kind and loving," she answered.

Ho-Oh gave her a thoughtful look. "What about the person Arceus left as his replacement? Isn't it too dangerous to give a mortal the powers of the Creator?" she asked, clearly worried.

Mew giggled lovingly. "Oh don't worry Goldie, the person Arcy left in charge is nigh-incorruptible and is one of the nicest and purest souls in the world. Plus Arcy left some good fail-safes just in case, so it's all good. But Arcy still wanted him to get the guidance of other legends, so he appointed you and Lugia to do so."

Ho-Oh nodded. "Alright, I'll be making my way to the Hall of Origin then. Thanks for relaying the message, Mew," she told the Pink candy-loving legend. With a flap of her mighty wings, Ho-Oh took off from Mew's platform. The pink legend made it disappear once Ho-Oh departed, flying after her.

"So, Mew," Ho-Oh began. "Is Arceus' temporary replacement someone I know?"

Mew grinned sweetly. "You'll see…" with that, Mew teleported away, leaving the Rainbow Legendary alone. Ho-Oh shrugged it off and continued flying peacefully towards the Hall of Origin, which she guessed was about a day or so from where she was at the moment.

Suddenly, Mew reappeared in front of her, causing Ho-Oh gasp in fright and nearly lose her flight again. "Hey!" Ho-Oh said, glaring at her.

Mew laughed. "I decided I'm going to tell you right now. Arceus' replacement is a good little cute Human boy you know_ very_ well…"

Ho-Oh paused, dread filling her. "Don't tell me…"

Mew told her of course. "Ash Ketchum!" she said merrily.

Ho-Oh's beak dropped in disbelief. "Arceus left _HIM_ as his replacement!" Ho-Oh shrieked in terror voice. "He's gonna blow up the world! Couldn't he get a smarter person?"

"Well…" Mew began. "A smarter person would find more ways to misuse Arcy's powers."

Ho-Oh paused and for a second admitted that what Mew was saying was perhaps true. "But…" the Rainbow legend muttered, her mind struggling to process the thought of Ash and god in the same sentence without breaking up in terror.

"Yeah, I doubt Ash is smart enough to even think of misusing them," Mew said offhandedly as if there wasn't a single thing to worry about, which, considering it was Ash, there probably wasn't.

Had she not being flying, Ho-Oh would have facepalmed (facewinged?). "Oh good, I get to be Ash's advisor," Ho-Oh muttered, wondering if she should be dreading or looking forward to it, looking forward to it perhaps, as she had always known Ash was a very kind and sweet individual, the thought of finally meeting him and actually talking to him was something that genuinely excited her, her mind raced on the feeling of finally meeting him formally. Ho-Oh found herself feeling eager to meet him, but just in case... "Are you sure it's safe? What was going through Arceus' head when he agreed to leave Ash there? Doesn't he know it could be hazardous for the world? It's _Ash_ we're talking about here!"

Mew laughed. "Aww, I thought you'd be happy to see him. After all, you're like a cute stalker with a crush with him," Mew commented jokingly, before bursting out laughing.

"Mew! Just where did you get that idea?" Ho-Oh shrieked, gazing incredulously at the pink psychic legendary.

Mew responded with telepathy since her mouth was too busy laughing. _"You follow him around and have come across him several times, and even let him see you, something you haven't let other humans do for a long time now, so your 'ensuring his safety' excuse is really thin." _

Ho-Oh shook her head in amusement. "Mew, you know it's not true."

Mew giggled happily. "True or not, I still like to poke fun at it," she said, trying to not burst out laughing again.

Ho-Oh rolled her eyes. "Well, I'll be going to the Hall of Origin… and I'd better go fast… what if Ash is about to do something stupid and damage the world! Ugh, why didn't Arceus think of that?" she lamented as she took off towards the Hall of Origin at her fastest flight speed.

Mew nodded to herself for a job well done, giggling as she saw Ho-Oh rushing towards the Hall of Origin in hopes of getting there before Ash did something stupid._ 'Now, to go and get Lugia,' _She thought to herself with a smile. It had been a while since she last saw Lugia himself.

She nodded to herself and teleported away towards the Orange Archipelago. She got there in a second with a bright pink flash, high above the clouds where she could see the entire archipelago. She looked around the mass of islands before spotting the ones she knew Lugia usually inhabited. She dove through the air quickly as her eyes glowed a bright pink, scanning the area psychically and grinning when she located the great silver sea guardian. Mew giggled to herself. _'He's going from guardian of the sea to guardian of God,'_ she thought in amusement before pausing. _'Or is it the secretary of God?' _she thought slowly before bursting out laughing.

Mew dived-bombed towards the sea at great speeds, creating one of her signature pink psychic bubbles to protect herself from the impact against the surface and from getting soaked. She dove into the Sea quickly so no one noticed her presence and continued going deeper and deeper along the marine floor surrounding Shamouti Island and its nearby isles. She grinned when she found who she had been looking for, and cooed at the scene she came upon.

Lugia was currently spending some time with his family. His mate, a female Lugia was resting against one of the slopes of the sea floor as she watched Lugia and his son, Silver, play what seemed to be an underwater variation of Tag. The three Lugias, being psychics, sensed Mew approaching (and heard her coo as well) and turned to look in her general direction.

"_Mew?"_ Lugia asked telepathically. _"What brings you here?"_

The pink legendary paused. _"Aww! I wanted to give you a playful scare… but then again, the scene was too cute for me to resist, hehe," _Mew commented telepathically, smiling lovingly at the three Lugias.

"_Thanks, I'm glad you find my family 'cute__,'" _Lugia said, smiling gently.

Lugia's mate, named Lucy, laughed heartily. _"She finds everything cute," _she noted, her telepathic voice full of mirth. Lugia chuckled and found himself agreeing with her, but he still appreciated Mew commenting on his family so positively.

"_Hi Mew!"_ Silver cried happily, swimming up to her quickly with a happy grin on his face.

Mew grinned back widely, expanding her pink bubble to let Silver in. They hugged each other playfully. Despite Silver still being an infant, he was significantly bigger than Mew, and she vanished inside his arms. _"Hi Silver!"_ Mew greeted back playfully, grabbing the tip of Silver's wings with her paws and spinning in place, making a makeshift merry-go-around. She was really happy, as Silver was one of the Pokémon she could _always_ count on to play with her, him being a kid and all. _"At least someone plays with me here," _Mew said happily.

Lugia and Lucy smiled, enjoying the sight of seeing Silver so happy. The infant Lugia smiled joyously. He also shared Mew's thoughts, so he enjoyed her company because she was a really great playmate, a lot better and more enthusiastic than his father, at least. _"Hey!"_ Lugia said playfully, pretending to take offense as he picked up on this thought. _"I play a lot with you."_

Silver laughed. _"Oh, don't worry dad, I love it, but you have to admit, you can't match Mew's playfulness," _the infant Lugia said telepathically.

Lugia laughed, knowing he couldn't argue with him as he had a valid point._ "I know, I know…" _he said. _"So Mew, did you come here to play with Silver?"_ Lugia asked.

He was wrong, very wrong. Mew shook her head as she parted from Silver. _"Nope, I didn't come here to play,"_ she answered, causing Silver to frown sadly. _"Oh, don't worry, we can play later!"_ she said cheerfully, and Silver grinned eagerly.

Lugia and Lucy glanced at each other in surprise, both equally shocked. _"Now that's a surprise,"_ Lucy muttered telepathically. She swam from her higher place on the reef to join Lugia's side on the sea floor.

Lugia stared at Mew for a second. _"Mew, you sure you're feeling well today? Have you had your daily dose of sugary sweets?" _he asked. Mew not coming to play was very strange.

The pink legendary paused and stared at them before giggling. _"I can always ask to play later, but yeah, didn't come here to play,"_ she confirmed.

"_So, if you're not here to play, what would it be?"_ Lugia asked curiously, genuinely astonished.

Mew blinked. _"Is it really that shocking that I come here for something else rather than playing?" _she wondered, looking at the two adult Lugias.

"_Yes,"_ Lugia and Lucy said flatly at the same time. Silver laughed while Mew blushed in embarrassment.

Mew floated up to the two Lugias, still inside her protective bubble. Silver swam so he was with the group as well. _"Well Lu, the reason I'm here is because I have a message for you,"_ Mew said, floating up so she was at eye level with the much bigger Legendary.

Lugia frowned. _"Mew, don't you think your nickname for me sounds a bit feminine?"_ he asked, not really enjoying the affectionate nickname Mew had for him.

"Lugy!" Mew cried happily, doing a happy twirl where she was. Silver, Lucy and Lugia sweatdropped collectively.

"_I think that's worse!"_ Lugia said, horrified at it.

"_Well dear, Lugy does sound kinda cute,"_ Lucy chuckled, nuzzling Lugia's neck tenderly.

"_It _is _cute, not just kinda,"_ Mew corrected. _"I think Lu would be cute for you too, Lucy,"_ she commented, a paw on her chin as she thought it out.

Lucy laughed. _"Lu doesn't sound that bad! I like it! The nickname you have for Silver, 'Silvy' sounds adorable too…"_

Silver cringed. _"Mom! Silvy sounds too girly!"_ he cried, horrified.

Mew and Lucy laughed while Silver and Lugia stared at them in fear. _"Mew, why do you give cute nicknames to every legendary?"_ Lugia wondered idly. He'd been wondering for a while now.

Mew grinned at him. _"It's to show I care for all of them especially, and because I like nicknames a lot better, and some of the Legends' names sound too formal and boring sometimes… like 'Arceus' is way too formal and stuffy. 'Arcy' on the other hand is much more awesome!" _

Lugia rolled his eyes, glad that at least she did it for affection. _"Well, anyway, what's this message you have for me?"_

"_There we go again, acting all serious and everything… well, at least Silvy plays with me,"_ Mew said in amusement. _"You see, Arcy has been very stressed lately and decided to take a vacation,"_ she began. At this, all three Lugia's eyes widened in surprise. Arceus and vacations weren't two words one would expect to hear in the same sentence. _"And Arcy wants you to be the personal assistant and advisor of the substitute he left in his place,"_ Mew continued, giggling at their shocked faces.

"_Aww, and I was having a nice time with my family…"_ Lugia said sadly, turning to look at Lucy and Silver.

Mew smiled at him. _"It's okay Lugia," _she said comfortingly._ "After this I'm sure you can get more family time. After all, Arcy would be grateful to you for keeping his replacement in line."_

Lugia nodded, feeling sad that his family time had been cut short. But he'd already been with them here for a long time now, at least two years or so, ever since Lucy and Silver had to flee the Whirl Islands thanks to some greedy humans, so he supposed it would be all right to leave them for a little while. Plus, it was an important assignment from Arceus himself, and Lugia knew he had to uphold those with the upmost responsibility. He didn't want to let the God Pokémon down. _"Okay I'll do it. How long is this going to last?"_ he asked curiously.

"_Depends__. It could be a few weeks or a few months, it's up to whenever Arcy decides he's had enough of a vacation,"_ Mew answered.

"_How is it that anyone could take over Arceus__' duties, though?" _Lucy asked, wondering how that was possible considering the immense power Arceus' position entailed.

Mew grinned, looking forward to the three Diving Pokémon's reactions to what she was about to say. _"Well, Arcy took a temporary demotion to mortality to experience a new way of living and to get his mind off his godly duties. He gave all his powers to his replacement. Basically, he switched places with a mortal, a human to be precise."_

"_What!"_ Lucy and Lugia shouted in disbelief, wondering if Mew was trying to pull one of her usual pranks. But she was acting too serious for that to be the case, and she rarely toyed around with matters as important and delicate as this. Silver stared at them and back at Mew in confusion. The small pink legendary began laughing at them.

"_Priceless!"_ Mew cried happily, whishing she had one of those camera things, they were good for recording funny stuff like this.

"_Mew, this is a prank right?"_ Lugia asked slowly, hoping that what he had just suggested was indeed the case.

Mew shook her head. _"Nope."_

Lugia groaned. _"Wonderful."_

"_Well, it could be worse, dear,"_ Lucy said.

"_How?"_ Lugia asked skeptically.

"_He could have chosen one of the others to take his place," _Lucy pointed out. _"And you know what _they _would do with absolute power."_

Lugia's eyes widened in horror. _"I know what _I_ would do!"_ Mew said cheerfully, only confirming his worries.

"_Ah, on second thought, maybe a human won't be so bad alter all,"_ Lugia said quickly. "_But what about my own duties? I must keep the ocean currents steady and the legendary birds in check."_ Mew frowned, thinking for a bit on how to solve this.

Lucy smiled and nuzzled him lovingly, beating Mew to a solution. _"I'll do that in your absence, don't worry dear."_

Lugia's eyes widened slightly. _"Are you sure?"_ he asked in concern.

"_Oh don't worry __about me, I'll be fine, me and Silver will go a great job,"_ Lucy said comfortingly.

Lugia nodded. _"Alright,"_ he said, wrapping his great wings around the smaller female Lugia in a hug. _"Good luck, my love."_

"_Don__'t worry about me, I'll be fine,"_she said sweetly, smiling gently at him. She returned the hug and intertwined her neck with his as they shared a loving kiss, well, as best as they could do so considering their anatomy. Mew squealed at the display while Silver blushed and looked away in embarrassment. Lugia and Lucy parted, smiling at each other. The female Lugia chuckled. _"Good luck babysitting an Arceus-wannabe,"_ she said jokingly.

Lugia laughed. _"I'm a very good babysitter, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres can vouch for that."_

Lugia parted from hugging Lucy and turned to Silver and Mew. With a quick forward motion of his great wings, he picked up a rather startled Silver from the seafloor and hugged him lovingly against his chest. _"Be a good boy and take care of mom, alright?"_ Lugia said kindly to his child, giving him a loving nuzzle and tender kiss.

Silver nodded happily. _"I will, daddy,"_ he chirped.

Lugia smiled at him. _"That's my boy,"_ he told the infant. He released him and faced both Lucy and Silver. _"Take care and stay safe," _he said to both of them. He paused and turned to Lucy. _"Oh, and if the bird trio try anything funny, feel free to Aeroblast them."_

Lucy laughed. _"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. And you take good care of Arceus' replacement."_

Silver looked at Lugia with wide innocent eyes. _"You'll be back soon, right daddy?" _he asked.

Lugia nodded. _"I'll try to. It depends on how much time Arceus spends on his vacation. I promise that when I get back I'll play with you as much as you want to,"_ he said to his child.

Silver grinned happily. _"Yay!" _he chimed.

Lugia nodded to Lucy and took off, swimming towards the surface of the ocean. He sent one last telepathic _'Goodbye'_ to them before erupting from the surface of the ocean in a wide splash. Mew had been gliding along with him, and stared at him curiously when she noticed he wasn't flying towards the Hall of Origin. "Lugia, where are you going?" she asked.

Lugia chuckled. "To the islands of Fire, Ice and Lightning. I'm going to threaten the legendary birds that if they so much as touch a single feather of my family, I'm going to make sure they wish they'd never hatched," he said in an annoyed tone as he flew towards the islands, knowing that the legendary birds had a habit of getting into arguments all the time. He wanted to make sure they didn't trouble Lucy and Silver. "I'm just worried for their safety."

Mew nodded. "Well, since you'll be at the Hall of Origin, if you want to check on your family, you could ask Ash to check on them for you, or generate a viewscreen for you to see them. I'm sure he'd gladly do you the favor, that way you can make sure your mate and kid are safe from any danger," she suggested to him, smiling at how much he loved his family.

Lugia nodded. "Good idea. But I'm still going to talk to Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, just in case," he said as he flew through the air. A few seconds passed when he realized what Mew had just said. He could swear he heard the sound of a Light Screen breaking. _'… Did she say… Ash?'_ he thought slowly, his mind in a state of shock.

Mew giggled. "Yep, I did, I said Ash," she repeated, reading his thoughts.

Lugia looked at Mew with an expression of distress. "Ash? You mean the Ash I know? My Chosen One?" he stammered, his mind reeling in terror at all the possibilities of _him_ being _God_. An involuntary shiver of fear ran down his spine.

Mew laughed wholeheartedly. "Yes, the one and only."

"What the hell was Arceus thinking?" Lugia cursed. "He left Ash in charge? Sure the kid's nice and a lovable human, but he's as smart as a balloon that doesn't even have any helium in it! Who knows what he could do?"

Mew giggled and smacked Lugia in the head with her tail. "Bad Lugia! Bad Lugia! No cussing!"

"Oww…" Lugia muttered, his head aching. He felt as if she'd hit him with an Iron Tail! He paused and shivered at the thought of how much damage she'd do if she _did_ use Iron Tail. He would have rubbed his head with his wing to ease it, but he was flying so that option was out of hand, literally. "Sorry, got carried away. But, Ash? Are you sure it's safe?"

Mew laughed. "It'll be okay, I'm sure of it. Not to mention you're going to be there to make sure he stays true and nice to his position, along with Ho-Oh."

Lugia blinked. "Ho-Oh too?" he asked.

Mew nodded. "Yep, I went to get her a bit before you, she's already on her way to the Hall of Origin," she informed him. "Arceus handpicked both of you to become Ash's advisors."

Lugia nodded and smiled. "That's a relief. With both of us there, we should be able to keep things under control. Plus, I guess it'll be good seeing her again," he admitted. "It's about a day's flight towards the Hall of Origin, so I better hurry! Now Mew, I'm going to beat up the birds and fly as fast as possible towards the Hall. I'll meet you there. Farewell!" he said as he sped towards the islands where the three legendary birds resided. Lugia smiled to himself, thinking it over, at least it was Ash, and Lugia trusted the boy as he was a very good friend of his, sure he might not be that smart, but his soul was undoubtedly pure, maybe Arceus did have a good reason for leaving Ash as his substitute, Lugia found himself actually looking forward to meet up with Ash, his chosen one, again, the very thought made Lugia brim with happiness.

Mew turned away as he flew into the distance. "Well…I already got Lugia and Ho-Oh, and it's already noon. In Sinnoh it should be night by now, so I'll go and eat some candy, then I'll go and stay with Arcy," she commented to herself before teleporting away, happy that she had finally gotten Ash's advisors. With that taken care of, she could dedicate more time to spend with Arceus, which made her grin happily to no end, but for now only one thing truly mattered: CANDY TIME!

* * *

And with this chapter 4 is over! I Hope you all liked it, especially with the introductions of Darkrai, Lugia and his family, Ho-Oh and the creation trio, and oh boy, Ash is in quite the mess isn't he? Let's hope he comes out okay, hehehe. Next chapter we shall see more of Darkrai and Cresselia too. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, until next time!

Oh, and for those of you who asked, Gods and Mortals will have a bit of a serious plot, but right now it's starting out. It will get a serious plot later, which should be revealed around chapters 6 or 7, but don't worry, it'll stay true to the fun. On another note, I decided to delay the posting of "Hidden Truth" a bit in favor of starting to work out on the first chapter of A New Chance For Adventure, which is my next posting objective. Now, I've still got some planning to go over so I might take a while, but don't worry, I'll try to make it as soon and good as possible, with that said…

Don't forget to** REVIEW**! I'd love to hear your thoughts! =)


	5. Nightmare Night

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.**

"Speech"

'_Thoughts'_

"_Telepathy"_

And here's chapter 5. ENJOY! :D

I want to thank csigamer1990 and dimensional42 for their help in the nightmare sequences for the group. Maaaan Darkrai is mean :P And as usual, special thanks to Ri2 for all his help beta-reading my chapters.

* * *

It was a very late night, an hour or two past midnight. However, Canalave city was completely sleepless. For the past several days thousands upon thousands of people were having severe insomnia, all because of Team Rocket and their nightmare-inducing machine. They had planned to earn great profits through the sale of fake Lunar Wings, based on the holy feathers of Cresselia that stopped bad dreams and blessed their wielders with good ones.

However, Team Rocket's scheme seems to have angered Darkrai, and as such he unleashed his nightmarish powers over Canalave city to continue the suffering inflicted upon the city, with even _worse_ nightmares than Team Rocket's machine could produce. After all, that machine paled in comparison to Darkrai's near-godlike powers.

Canalave city's poor residents wouldn't be sleeping well any time soon, and sadly, that applied to a certain group of trainers and a god-turned-mortal too, as they were all submerged into the darkness of Darkrai's nightmares.

…

Arceus twitched in his sleep, then turned abruptly, causing the covers to fall off the bed, his face showing clear discomfort as he had a nightmare, a really bad one.

Arceus, still in Ash's body, felt himself trapped in some sort of dark containment sphere that crackled with an odd dark energy every few seconds or so. It was semi-transparent, allowing him to see in the void that seemed to be surrounding him. He blinked in confusion. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep…how had he gotten here? He gazed at the endless expanse of space before him, seeing nothing that could give him a hint as to what was going on.

To get further answers, he tried to call upon the small fragment of his godly powers he had dragged into Ash's body when he switched places with the boy. While tiny compared to the powers his true godly self had, they were still decent on a mortal level. He willed himself free, but was shocked when he couldn't find them. It was as if he never had them in the first place. "What's… going on?" he asked himself in confusion, his eyes darting around the void.

Suddenly, the nothingness before him rumbled ominously, emitting a colossal shockwave that seemed to shake everything to its very foundation, the void beginning to fill up as something appeared in it, and slowly a world formed around him, a life-sustaining dimension. A figure rose before him, towering imposingly over his comparatively diminutive form. Arceus instantly recognized the deathly basilisk-like Dragon before him. _'Giratina… in her Origin Forme,' _Arceus thought, gazing up at her warily. Being a powerless human he could do nothing should she try to harm him, which due to the wicked glare in her face, he took for granted she was about to do.

Arceus' eyes widened when Giratina's golden facemask separated in the middle, revealing her mouth. A bright sphere of crimson fire began to charge in her jaws as she prepared an Aura Sphere attack. Arceus tried to take a step back, but to his shock he couldn't move much due to his current containment. To his surprise, the attack the ghostly dragoness fired didn't hit him, instead passing by him without causing him any harm.

A colossal explosion behind him made him whirl around, and brought him face to face with a sight that terrified him to his very core. Arceus stared in disbelief while feeling for the first time in a very, very long time an emotion he was not used to: fear. Giratina had fired the attack at none other than…Arceus? Himself? Looking closely at the Arceus' movements and features, he knew it was Ash, the human kid he had exchanged places with not long ago.

The clash of two other attacks against Ash forced him to cover his eyes from the harsh bright hue of pink and blue light generated by them. When it receded he was once again shocked to see Dialga and Palkia in the battle as well, all three of the creation dragons attacking Ash savagely as the Human-turned-god defended himself and fought back as best as he could.

Arceus stared in absolute shock at the clash before him, godly energies exploding all around him from the sheer might of the four dueling deities. "Stop!" Arceus screamed angrily at the top of his lungs. "Dialga! Palkia! Giratina! Stop this at once!"

No one heard him. The battle continued as if he hadn't said anything, as if he wasn't even there to be heard in the first place, as if he didn't exist to the creation trio or even Ash. He tried calling them, screaming at them to stop, but his cries went totally unheard.

The titanic battle continued before his eyes, as Ash fought off the angry creation trio as best as he could. Arceus wondered how much time this had lasted already. Being in this dimensional nothingness it was impossible to tell the time, maybe the duel had just lasted minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? With Dialga in it he wasn't sure. To Arceus' horror, Ash was on the losing end of the battle; his movements were growing weaker as his powers diminished while the creation trio's shone at their strongest.

A colossal clash of the creation trio's signature attacks shook everything again, sending a massive tremor across all of existence, and this time a massive column of light followed, shooting through and illuminating the veil of darkness that covered everything around him as he heard Ash give a final scream, the Creation Trio's attacks having ended his life, and that of Arceus' body and powers along with it.

Arceus tried his best to intervene, but he found it impossible to do anything against the restraint locking him into the sphere, no matter how much he tried. It was as if he had stopped being God forever. Suddenly a colossal shockwave erupted in all directions, destroying existence itself from its sheer power. Unnaturally, it didn't harm him in the least bit as it passed through him, wiping everything else out. The next sight was one that shocked him even more to his very core, letting him truly experience fear for the first time in perhaps millennia.

He watched as his creation, existence itself, began to fall apart with the destruction of his divine powers by the rampant creation trio. He watched as the three dragons kept fighting amongst each other, apparently not satisfied with Ash's death.

Arceus was forced to watch as all of reality began to fall apart. Little by little, everything would eventually cease to exist, ultimately including even himself. His cries of despair at a creator's worst nightmare being fulfilled echoed throughout the darkness as everything came to an end.

…

Everything was peaceful across the wonderful town Pikachu suddenly found himself in. He didn't know how exactly he had appeared here. Blinking and taking the sights in as he looked at the town more fixedly. It had no paved roads, rather there were very neatly kept dirt roads. Picture-perfect wooden houses with pretty gardens and big grassy lawns dotted all over the place. On the farthest hill overlooking the town was a large pinkish two-story building with a wind turbine on top. It was a place that was very familiar to him; he was looking at the tranquil landscape of Pallet Town, his trainer's hometown. Pikachu smiled at the wonderful sight of the town he adored so much.

He walked down one of the roads for a few seconds in the direction he remembered would lead him to Ash's house, hoping to see if his trainer was there as he found himself mysteriously alone. He noted that for some reason, he seemed to be the only soul out at the moment.

He looked around and wondered what had happened to everyone. Sure, Pallet Town tended to be a relaxed and quiet town, but this was unusual, for not a single person or Pokémon could be seen. Pikachu shivered at the ghostly feel this added to the usual friendly and charming town. He ran forward to get the journey over with as soon as possible. He arrived at his trainer's home and noted there was someone in front of the house. It was Ash, his back turned to Pikachu.

"Uh, hey Ash, is that you?" Pikachu asked slowly, feeling that something was oddly wrong. It was a feeling that seemed to grip him at full intensity and no matter what he did, he just couldn't shake it off or ignore it.

"Pikachu…" Ash said after a moment, his voice hollow and empty, as it had no emotions, something that made Pikachu cringe very visibly.

Suddenly, a maelstrom of black flames erupted across the town in an expansive outwards blast, making Pikachu jump from the fright of the flames suddenly appearing, creating an expanding wall of fire that leveled the rural town within seconds as many pained screams echoed all around the place. The flames then created a dark fiery tornado that slowly enveloped the landscape, leaving Pikachu at the center of the destruction completely unharmed. "Wh-what's go-going o-on?" Pikachu stuttered from terror. He hadn't just seen Pallet Town being burned in a fiery darkness, right? Right?

"Mwahahahah!" A dark laughed echoed in front of the Electric-type. Pikachu looked at Ash with a surprised and shaken look on his face as a thick black aura began to surround him slowly, growing stronger by the second.

Pikachu abruptly took a few steps back, his mind racing and trying to decipher what was going on. "Who are you?" he asked worriedly. Whatever was in front of him wasn't his beloved Ash.

The dark laugher continued as the figure began to slowly turn around. "Well, who else?" the figure asked as several tendrils of dark flames lashed around him, emphasizing his question. It was none other than… Ash, just like Pikachu had feared.

Pikachu blinked in confusion as terror gripped him tightly. "What… the…" he said slowly. This wasn't the Ash he had always known. His face held a sinister grin and his eyes were blood red. Dark aura flames crackled all around him now at full intensity. Pikachu was reminded of the time Ash had been possessed by the king of Pokélantis. This time, however, it was clearly worse.

"Pallet town is no more…how amusing…" the dark Ash commented, chuckling in fascination at what he had just done.

Pikachu growled, trying to use his electricity, but found that he couldn't summon a single spark to his cheeks. "Who are you? What did you do with Ash!" he demanded angrily.

"I am Ash, you silly Rattata!" the being snapped angrily, his rage causing Pikachu to take a few steps back. "Can't you see it? But now I am way better than before… I am now… a god!"

Pikachu stared at him blankly. "…What?" Okay, this was increasingly weird, who in their right mind would make Ash a _god_? Ash and god weren't words meant to be together in the same sentence. Pikachu wondered if he really should have accepted Officer Jenny's dinner…he thought it had tasted funny.

"Hehe, I'd expect a puny little mortal like you to not understand me. I am a god now… and that's all that matters." the dark Ash explained, cackling maliciously. "I am above everyone now!"

Pikachu growled. "How dare you claim you're Ash? Ash would never say things like that!"

The dark one chuckled lowly. "I am Ash, a way better version of that stupid mortal he used to be!" He declared boldly, raising his arms skywards as the black flames turned even darker, along with everything else, resulting in Pikachu being trapped in a void of pure nothingness.

The dark Ash appeared in front of him, chuckling darkly. "Behold the true might of the god I am now!" he bellowed as he was covered in an explosion of dark aura. His physical form began to change as he grew bigger. A second blast of deathly aura made Pikachu shield his eyes and be flung back harshly. When the attack ended, he looked at his friend only to gasp in terror.

In front of him was now a very large four-legged being. He had jet-black fur covering his body, with a dark purplish blue underside and hooves. In his middle was an odd sight, the being had what looked like a segmented wheel wrapped around its waist. It was blood red and gave the impression that it was made of solidified blood. Four black gems that seemed to hold darkness and pain far beyond Pikachu's comprehension sprouted from the wheel. The Electric-type looked at his face and gaped in despair at the being's hate-filled eyes… in them, Pikachu recognized… Ash. "A-Ash? What have you become?" Pikachu whispered in horror.

"I have become perfection, something above you silly mortals, I am…God!" Ash answered him, focusing his malevolent gaze on him.

"Wait until I get my paws on you!" Pikachu yelled angrily. "I'll get my best friend back if it's the last thing I do! You're not Ash! You couldn't be!" he screamed as a tear slid down his cheek. _'I hope…' _

"He doesn't exist anymore…that imperfect Ash has ceased to exist to give birth to a new me, a god…and when I rule the world…when I _am_ the world… I shall begin an elaborate plot to fix the biggest error in all existence," he dark one said ominously.

Pikachu shivered, wondering what that meant. "Y-you'll fail! You bad guys _always_ lose!"

A final chuckled echoed. "I've already won, and once I rule all of reality, I shall…eliminate ketchup from existence!" the dark god declared. "A mistake that must be fixed!"

Pikachu's mind went deathly numb at the dark one's words, unable or unwilling to believe what the voice had said. He fervently denied it to himself, what the voice said couldn't be true, it just couldn't! But the overwhelming sense of power behind the voice said otherwise, and no matter how much Pikachu denied it to himself he somehow knew that the voice could perform such an act, and that fact completely broke his spirit. This was too much for him to bear, losing Ash and now losing ketchup? The mouse-like Pokémon fell to his knees as his pained cries of suffering echoed unheard throughout the black void...

…

Brock found himself walking around by himself in the streets of a city he didn't quite recognize. He felt that he had been here before but every time he tried to remember it, the name seemed to escape him, so he settled for walking around trying to figure out what was going on.

He walked through the alley for a few minutes, wondering where he was and where his friends were. He rarely went alone without them. He walked until he came to what seemed like a main plaza, and there his eyes turned to hearts. Walking everywhere were women, the prettiest he had ever seen in his life. "This is the luckiest day of my life!" Brock gushed, grinning at the sight of all the women all around him.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew by, causing Brock to shield his eyes as a piece of paper was literally shoved into his face by it. "Huh, what's this?" Brock wondered as he took a look at it. His jaw dropped.

It was today's newspaper, and the main front page article immediately caught his interest as he read it intently. "It… says I'm… the last man in the world…" Brock whispered. For a second he wondered if it was true. Just what kind of dream was this? And if it was real, what had happened to all his male friends? However, before he could ponder that, a dark ghastly voice echoed deep in his mind, telling him to ignore this and look at what this meant, and for some reason he was unable to resist it. If he was the last man in the world, that meant he had all the girls for himself! This was the best dream ever!

He ran into the plaza eagerly. "Hello girls! Brock's finally here!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, lifting his hands up dramatically. Several of the women turned to look at his direction, gazing at him with open surprise.

"Who is he?" a pretty tall blond asked curiously, walking closer to him.

"Oh, he's the guy in the newspapers! The last man in the world!" another answered, pointing at him rather unnecessarily.

"Oh, that was an odd occurrence," another commented oddly.

Little by little, the women around the plaza began to crowd around Brock, whispering and murmuring among themselves, like he was a big center of attraction, which he enjoyed greatly, perhaps a little _too_ much. "So who wants to go out with the last man in existence, the great Brock?" he asked eagerly, making a sexy (goofy) face and holding a rather pretty rose.

Several of the women around him frowned sadly, the mood around the plaza shifting significantly to a more aggressive one. "Go out with you?" one of them said with a scowl. "What kind of nonsense is that?"

Brock grimaced. "Bu-but I'm the last man in the world!" He yelled desperately, extending his arms out and motioning to the newspaper.

The women made a face. "Ew! Who'd want to go out with _you_?" She asked, spitting the word 'you' as if it was a curse. She held hands with another woman. "I'd prefer to turn lesbian, then."

Brock's jaw dropped from sheer incredulity. "What?" he asked flatly, flabbergasted at what the woman had said.

Another girl nodded and held hands with another women. "We'd all rather be lesbians then go out with _you_."

"Noooo!" Brock cried in horror, dropping to his knees as the really nice dream turned into a horrible nightmare. One by one, all the women in the plaza started getting into couples and then walked out in pairs together. Soon, he was all alone in the plaza.

Brock remained there for a while, his heart completely shattered. He just couldn't believe it, they had no other choice than him since he was the last man on the planet, and instead they chose to turn lesbian? His mind just couldn't comprehend the sheer amount of horror of this. He wasn't really that bad was he? There was no way this nightmare could turn any worse…

Night fell and he remained like that. Suddenly, he got the strangest feeling that somehow he was being watched. "Uh, who's out there?" Brock called out nervously, his squinty eyes darting around to see if he had company. Maybe a girl had changed her mind?

Brock looked a bit baffled and scared when a pair of red eyes suddenly appeared in the darkness. He shivered in fright. "Wh-who's there?" he asked, more desperately this time.

The newcomer revealed herself to a Ninetales. Brock blinked. "Oh, what are you doing here?"

The Ninetales looked at him intently, almost as if examining him. "So, you're the last male in the world then…" she muttered, her gaze still drawn to him fixedly.

Brock blinked, wondering how he had understood the Pokémon so perfectly and also thinking on her line of 'last male.' "Last male?" he asked curiously.

Ninetales nodded. "Yes, you are the last male in existence, of both Humans and Pokémon. You aren't exactly my top choice, but you'll do."

Brock started to look nervous. "I'll do for what?"

Ninetales smirked playfully. "Girls!" She yelled loudly.

Before Brock could react, he noticed he was surrounded by many, _many_ Pokémon, all of them obviously female, with their gazes fixed on him adamantly. "Uh, hello…" he said timidly as he was surrounded by the group.

A Lopunny stared at him for a second before grinning. "Yes, he'll work just nicely," she drooled slowly as she inched closer. Brock began to shiver in terror.

A Gardevoir nodded. "Indeed, let's put his 'last male in the world' status to _very _good use, girls," she said slowly, licking her lips. They all nodded in agreement, getting closer to him. Brock's eyes widened in horror after hearing that. It looked like there _was_ indeed a way for this nightmare to get worse.

"Let's see just how good of a Pokémon_ breeder_ you are," the Ninetales purred sultrily, putting a very especial emphasis on the word 'breeder' as she also licked her lips eagerly.

A very big female Tyranitar began to get too close to him for his liking. "Don't worry, if he isn't a good enough _breeder_, we'll _make_ him one," she said confidently while smirking savagely at him. "I get first dibs."

The Lopunny grinned in agreement. "Mastery is gained through practice after all."

Brock screamed in terror. "G-get away from me!" he cried in repulsion.

The Gardevoir laughed. "Wasn't it your dream to become a Pokémon breeder? It's about to come true!"

The Tyranitar nodded, just a foot away from him while grinning down at him in a too-friendly manner. "Don't worry toy, you'll still get to breed Pokémon, just not the way you thought."

The Ninetales grinned. "Time to stop talking and get to the action. Get him!" She yelled. All the horny female Pokémon didn't waste a single second before jumping at him and ganging up on him. He never had a chance to escape.

Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, who had been watching from a far-off corner, giggled, held hands, and walked away as if nothing was happening.

"Noooooooooooooo!" Brock's screams of horror echoed all across the nightmare land, and were probably heard in nearby nightmares too! A new record for Darkrai.

…

Piplup blinked a couple of times, feeling… odd. He swore he had been sleeping just a few seconds ago… He was currently on a peaceful beach, sitting at the edge where the waves washed onto the sand.

"Wonderful view, isn't it?" Dawn asked him with a tender smile, and it was only then that Piplup realized she was beside him, sitting with her legs crossed on the sand.

Piplup nodded in agreement, still a bit confused as to how he had gotten here, but enjoyed the moment with his beloved trainer nonetheless. They stayed like that for a few minutes, enjoying the sight of the ocean and the tranquil waves. "You know…" Dawn began. Piplup looked at her with his full attention. "I've been thinking a lot on our current performance in Pokémon contests, and I've decided we need a desperate change if we want to keep up with the competition."

Piplup blinked, rather confused as to why Dawn had suddenly said that. To him their performances had been good. "I think we are fine," he muttered, not that Dawn would understand him.

To his surprised, she apparently did. "No, we are not fine, and big change is due," she said firmly, mildly scaring Piplup.

"I honestly think we are fine, Dawn," Piplup voiced again, taking advantage of this break in the language barrier that usually separated them.

"No," Dawn answered adamantly, glaring at him.

Piplup scratched his head, wondering what else the blue haired girl could want. She had a nice group of traveling friends, a strong and loyal Pokémon team, and a great starter Pokémon, or so Piplup had thought. "Then what?" he asked, awaiting her answer.

Dawn grinned, and it sent a shiver down Piplup's spine at the hint of malice behind it. "You'll see," she answered with a small dark laugh.

Dawn took out a single blue stone that made Piplup's eyes widen in complete terror. The stone had several raindrop-like markings running across it. It was a water stone, an item often used to evolve certain species of Water-type Pokémon. "N-no, Dawn! I don't want to evolve!" Piplup cried in terror, backing away from her.

Dawn lunged at him, and for some reason, Piplup was unable to move as Dawn tagged him with the water stone. "Nooo-" Piplup's pained cry was cut short as his body was enveloped in a bright white light as his evolution to a Prinplup started, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

His body grew in size under the blinding light. His fins became sharper and his beak gained two fin-like yellow extensions on his head, his upper skin grew darker in color and his stature increased. When the light receded, he was a Prinplup. The newly evolved Prinplup looked at his fins for a second as a tear rolled down his cheek. He didn't want to evolve, he didn't! He wanted to stay a Piplup forever! He looked at Dawn's wicked smirk as his eyes reflected sadness and heartbreak. "W-why?" he asked softly, still trying to comprehend what Dawn had done to him. She had just force-evolved him… he couldn't believe it, he refused to!

Piplup, no, _Prinplup_ began to cry, his mind still in disbelief of what his beloved Dawn had just done to him. Dawn hummed, putting a finger on her chin. "I think it's not enough."

Prinplup froze in horror and looked up weakly as Dawn approached him once more, a sinister uncharacteristic smirk on her lips. "I want an Empoleon," she said in a cheerful tone that didn't sound remotely like the true Dawn.

"No, please… no more…" Prinplup begged, but was again unable to do a single thing as Dawn tapped him once with the Water Stone again. He sobbed loudly as he was forced evolved again, once more covered in a bright white light as he grew in size until he was taller than Dawn, his fins and body changing to a mostly black color while gaining a more metallic sheen as he became the half Steel-type Empoleon.

As the light receded and he saw what Dawn had done to him, he broke. He dropped to the sand and cried. "Why? Wh-why!" he repeated loudly between cries. He just couldn't believe it. What had his sweet Dawn become? He had always trusted her, and now she did this to him?

"Why? Because you are just a pathetic weak overconfident starter Pokémon, at the lowest level possible, and I don't want any of that," Dawn answered coldly. Empoleon winced at each of her words, crying harder in the sand.

"I… I am not that…" Empoleonsaid weakly. "I really cared for you, I… never wanted to evolve… how could you do thi-"

"Shut up!" Dawn snapped. "Even evolved you still are the same useless excuse of a Pokémon!"

Empoleon cried at hearing that for a moment until he felt an odd tingly feeling. He noticed he was surrounded in a blue glow that suddenly shattered and dissipated into hundred of tiny blue sparkles before fading away. He looked back in horror and saw the sight that broke him the most. Dawn was holding a Pokéball and had just released him. "No…" he whispered.

Dawn laughed darkly, something that looked horribly uncharacteristic on her. "I should have known you wouldn't live up to my expectations. I evolve you and you just cry? I don't need you anymore. I'm through with you."

"No… Dawn… please…" Empoleon whispered silently, refusing to believe what he had just heard.

"Mudkip!" Empoleon suddenly heard. He looked upwards to Dawn in confusion and noticed she now had a Mudkip cradled in her arms.

Dawn grinned happily. "Meet my new water-type Empoleon, Mudkip!" she said cheerfully, ignoring the obvious pain he was going through.

"What? Why?" Empoleon cried in horror.

Dawn shrugged. "Because… I like Mudkips."

Empoleon's mind and will broke completely from hearing that. "Noooooooooooo!" he cried to the heavens in the purest possible form of suffering and despair.

"And I hate Piplups," Dawn added, not that the screaming and broken Empoleon could hear her…

…

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Everyone screamed from sheer fear and horror as they woke up abruptly from horrible nightmares, clutching their pillows tight to their bodies to have something to hold on to.

Brock shivered as he recalled his nightmare and actually considered forgetting about Pokémon Breeding, maybe being something like a Pokémon Doctor would do? Or just stick to being a Gym Leader maybe… He nearly fainted. _'Females…' _He thought in horror.

A tear ran down Piplup's cheek as he turned to look at Dawn with hurt and betrayal clouding his vision.

Pikachu breathed harshly from the horrifying experience in his nightmare and turned to look at Arceus, who he was very suspicious wasn't Ash, with a scared look.

The lights immediately flicked on as Officer Jenny entered the room, she too clutching a pillow tight to her body, dressed in a night gown. "Hey what happened, is everyone okay?" she asked in concern.

Arceus growled lowly in anger. He had sensed a very distinctive trace of energy in the nightmare, one that belonged to only one Pokémon. "Darkrai…" he whispered in a tone so low no one heard him, quite enraged and still feeling very shocked to the core for the specific nightmare he had been given.

An overwhelming presence filled the room as Arceus let some of his powers slip in his anger, causing everyone to turn to look at who they thought was Ash with a scared and stunned look. Mew reacted quickly as she entered Arceus' mind psychically, releasing a soothing and loving sensation that quickly calmed him down and relaxed him as she used her powers to easily hold back and subdue his tuned-down godly might. _"Quick, do a dopey act!" _Mew's voice rang in his mind.

Arceus did the first thing that he imagined Ash would do if he woke up from a nightmare and scared everyone. He fall back to the bed and put a pillow on himself. "Ahh! Why did something have to interrupt _my _sleep!" he complained childishly.

Everyone stared at him awkwardly for a few seconds. Pikachu swapped his stare for a glare. _'I felt that! What the hell was that? I know Ash wouldn't release a scary powerful presence like that when woken up from a nightmare! Even if he can get a bit pissed off sometimes…'_ the electric-type thought. _'Then there was… that nightmare…'_

"Uhh, what was that?" Brock asked curiously.

"A really rude awakening?" Officer Jenny answered, though her tone implied she had no idea what had just happened. "I assume you all had nightmares, correct?" Brock, Pikachu, Piplup and Arceus nodded. Jenny sighed. "Yeah me too. The same ones, over and over again…this one was a bit worse than usual though…"

Piplup shivered in terror at his nightmare, sniffing slightly as he held back tears. "But… I thought we destroyed Team Rocket's nightmare machine!" Brock exclaimed. "Shouldn't the nightmares be over?"

Officer Jenny lowered her gaze. "There was… something different about this nightmare… it was just as scary as all the others, but this time it felt…_stronger_…"

Brock hummed as he heard that, thinking of all the possibilities, but all the paths led to one and only one answer. "If Team Rocket's machine was destroyed and we're still having nightmares… then that must mean…"

Officer Jenny's eyes widened from horror. "Th-the r-real D-d-_Darkrai_ is here…" she whispered, stuttering from fear.

"This is bad…" Arceus began. "We have to stop him!" he said determinately in an eagerness only Ash had, yet Pikachu wasn't buying his acts anymore.

"We have to restore peace to Canalave city!" Brock agreed.

Officer Jenny nodded. "I don't think we're powerful enough to battle Darkrai… or even skilled enough to find him. However, there is one being that can track him down, beat him…and erase all trace of his powers…"

"Who?" Arceus asked, feigning being clueless. In reality he already knew they were talking about Cresselia, he just wanted to act like Ash.

Officer Jenny smiled. "Cresselia," she answered softly in a tone of fascination. "We need to find her and hope she has mercy enough to help Canalave city."

Arceus chuckled to himself. _'Cresselia's a very chivalrous legendary. Tell her there's a problem and she'll gladly jump in to help, so there's no need to hope for mercy. That and this involves Darkrai, so she's one hundred percent assured to help…'_ he thought to himself.

Mew giggled to herself. _"And then there's what's going on between them. Think she'll get him this time?"_

'_I don't know Mew, but I might help her so as to get payback at Darkrai. That nightmare was really disturbing, it's been a while since I've gotten a good scare…' _

"_Remember Arcy, it was just that, a nightmare," _Mew chided lovingly. _"It's not real."_

Arceus nodded. _'I know… and hey, where are you by the way?'_ Arceus asked curiously.

"_Under your bed,"_ Mew answered casually.

Arceus sweatdropped. _'Doing what?'_

"_Eating candy,"_ she answered happily. Arceus wisely decided not to ask anything else.

In the meantime, Officer Jenny had thought of a plan. "Listen kids, get dressed up, we're going to Full Moon Island to find Cresselia and put an end to Darkrai's nightmares!"

"Yeah!" all of them cheered. Well, almost all of them.

Brock felt awkward. "Why has Dawn been suspiciously absent from all this discussion?"

All of them turned to Dawn's bed and were stunned to see her sleeping, an angelic and peaceful look on her face, not a single thing bothering her. Officer Jenny's jaw dropped. "Bu-But how?"

"No fair!" Brock lamented. "She gets to sleep nicely and we get nightmares all night long?"

Arceus frowned, wondering how Ash's female friend had slept through Darkrai's powers without suffering from their malicious effects. "I suggest we wake her up, I don't think she'd want to miss out on the adventure."

"Yeah," Brock agreed, standing up and walking towards Dawn's bed. He shook her lightly. "Hey, Dawn, wake up…"

Dawn didn't answer for a few seconds, prompting Brock to shake her again, this time a little harder. That did the trick as Dawn slowly woke up, her eyes opening slightly. "Uhh… is it… morning already?" she asked slowly, feeling very sleepy and tired.

"No," Officer Jenny said sadly. "It's around two in the morning," she answered.

Dawn slumped back into the bed. "Then why did you wake me up? I was having a really wonderful dream." She said tiredly. Everyone glared at her jealously. She blinked and shrunk back to the bed in embarrassment and fear, confused by the sudden hostility against her.

"Everyone had horrible nightmares Dawn, this time it's the real Darkrai that's in town and we're going to stop him," Arceus explained. "We figured you wouldn't want to miss the adventure."

Dawn, despite being very tired, nodded in agreement. "No I wouldn't!" she exclaimed, sitting on the bed and stretching to get rid of her sleepiness, then rubbed her eyes.

Brock looked at her enviously. "How did you get a good dream? Darkrai's around and we all had horrible nightmares!" He shivered as he recalled his nightmare.

Dawn smiled sadly. "Oh, sorry to hear that… I think I know why," Dawn began as she reached for her neck and put her hand under the shirt of the night gown, pulling out a pendant with a feather in it. "My Lunar Wing, remember?"

Everyone groaned. "Oh right, I forgot she had a genuine one," Officer Jenny muttered. "Stupid fake sellers…"

Brock sighed. "At least we know it works for real."

"Well kids, get dressed," Officer Jenny told them. "We're setting out as soon as possible to find Darkrai!" she said vigorously, eager to stop the nightmare plague that Canalave city was suffering. She closed the door to go and get ready herself.

Piplup looked at Dawn sadly, tears in his eyes. Dawn felt a pang of worry as she reached down and picked him up. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked in a soft voice, petting the Water-type softly. Piplup cried against her.

Pikachu jumped from Arceus' bed, walked to Dawn's and hopped on it. "Hey Piplup, what happened?" Pikachu asked. Even if Piplup had a bigger bond with Dawn, without understanding between them there wasn't much she could do to help him, so Pikachu decided to help his friend. He had a good guess what was going on.

"My nightmare…" Piplup sobbed. "Dawn force evolved me _twice_…with a Water Stone…then traded me away for a _Mudkip_!" he shouted, crying into Dawn's gown.

Pikachu walked so he was beside Dawn's leg, putting a paw on Piplup's back. "Hey, I-" he began, but was interrupted.

"A freaking Mudkip, I tell you! _A MUDKIP_!" Piplup yelled, sobbing.

Pikachu smiled sympathetically. "That was a nightmare Piplup, as bad as it was, it wasn't real," he said in a calm soothing voice. "I had a nightmare as bad as yours but I'm not crying over it, so relax…"

Piplup sniffed. "But…but…"

Pikachu nodded. "It's alright, look up."

Piplup looked up and found himself staring at Dawn's loving face and tender smile. Dawn reached out and put a hand on the Water-type's head, petting him softly. "I don't know what's going on," she admitted. "But it's okay Piplup…stop crying."

Pikachu smiled. "Do you think she'd force evolve you into an Empoleon and then discard you for a Mudkip? Do you_ really_ think she'd do that to you?"

Piplup immediately knew the answer to that. "N-no…" he answered weakly.

"This is reality. What happened in your nightmare doesn't exist. Here in reality Dawn will always love and care for you, so don't worry," Pikachu told him comfortingly. "If you want a reassurance, I don't think Water Stones even work on your species, they only work on a handful of Pokémon, they just worked on you for the nightmare's plot convenience."

Pipilup nodded and hugged Dawn, sniffing back his tears. Dawn smiled and rubbed Piplup's back. "Thanks Pikachu, I owe you one." Pikachu nodded at her with a grin and jumped back so he was in the center of the rooms, glancing at Arceus warily.

Arceus noticed this and smiled as Ash would. "Well, let's get ready to find Darkrai!" he announced eagerly, just as Ash would, and everyone nodded.

Pikachu narrowed his eyes. _'That nightmare, as scary as it was, had some sense in it. It could explain why Ash has been acting like he has been. It's so weird, but maybe its some kind of signal of what truly happened here… what's going on with Ash… just… what… I wish I knew. Whatever it is, I'll get to the bottom of it!' _He glanced at Piplup, who seemed to be doing better, and shivered when his thoughts drifted to his own nightmare. Glancing around, he noticed everyone also had a bit of that in their gazes, except for Dawn. He guessed that everyone must have had their own nightmare in their minds. Pikachu sighed. "I just hope nothing happens to my dear ketchup too. Erasing it from existence? Blasphemy!" He walked back to Arceus' side as everyone got ready for the late night adventure, now more determined than ever to find out what was wrong with his beloved trainer.

Under Arceus' bed, Mew purred in excitement as her long tail curled slightly. She had been reading Pikachu's mind as he made up his mind on what to do, her eyes locked on him. _'So he's really planning on going detective on us? Good. I'll have so much fun…. Hehehe..._' she thought to herself, grinning childishly. With that the group got ready to set out on a new adventure...

* * *

At hearing the Renegade Pokémon's most unusual claim, Palkia and Dialga stared at her quizzically, then turned to look at the perplexed-looking Ash (who they thought was Arceus), and then back to Giratina. "Uh, did I miss something here?" Palkia asked in confusion.

Dialga turned to look at Giratina with a surprised expression on her face. "Are you feeling well?" she asked tentatively. "That's a very dangerous claim you're making there, Giratina."

The Dragon and Ghost-type growled at the Temporal Pokémon in rage. "Of course I'm feeling well!" Giratina roared at her angrily, stomping on the golden and white tiles of the Hall of Origin with her front legs, her golden claws clicking loudly across the room.

Ash quickly calmed down, the reactions of the time and space dragons giving him a glimmer of hope_. 'Yes! Yes! Palkia and Dialga doubt Giratina! That's great, now I must argue that I am Arceus and hope I can make them side with me so we can outvote Giratina,'_ Ash thought to himself, his eyes narrowing at the Dragoness. _'I better be careful… she's not in the best mood… And now that I get to know her… she's very scary.'_

Palkia turned to look at Ash, then back at Giratina. "He seems and feels as he always has, what are you talking about?" he asked, confounded.

Ash tried to act as Arceus-ish as possible, something he felt he was getting a lot of practice on in recent minutes. "Giratina, what's the meaning of this accusation?" he demanded steadfastly, not a trace of doubt in his voice.

"Oh don't act all Arceus on me impostor, I know you aren't him!"Giratina snapped back, an eerie tone in her deathly voice.

Ash glared at her. "Your rage is making you think irrationally."

Giratina stomped furiously. "I'll show you irrational!" she growled as she charged a crimson fiery Aura Sphere in her jaw, the powerful attack growing rapidly in size.

To Giratina's surprise, Dialga stepped between her and Ash. "Attacking Father out of an assumption isn't something I'll permit! You're taking this too far, Giratina!" she shouted, glaring defiantly at Giratina.

Giratina dispelled the Aura Sphere and glanced incredulously at the Temporal Dragoness. "Get out of the way!" she demanded.

Dialga shook her head. "No," she said in an even voice. "Attacking Father is outright ridiculous."

Giratina chuckled darkly. "It is," she agreed, but before Dialga could say anything, she continued. "The thing is, he _isn't _Father," she declared confidently. She knew it; she had seen it in his eyes, in his very soul. He didn't have that intensity and power, that sheer presence and might in him that she knew only the true Arceus had. But that wasn't the problem, what her mind was currently racing worriedly on was, if the being before them had Arceus' powers and could imitate him near perfectly, where was the _real_ Arceus?

Palkia walked closer to Ash and stared at him analytically for a few seconds. He shrugged and looked back at the two dragonesses. "He seems okay to me."

"You're seeing things, Giratina," Dialga said steadily, her voice soft. "I know you're very angry about recent events, but this is taking it way too far. Calm down."

"To hell with that!" Giratina cursed. "I know he isn't father, I saw it very clearly!"

Dialga blinked in confusion and glanced between Giratina and Ash several times, seeing nothing odd. Palkia did the same. "Are you really sure?" Dialga asked.

Giratina nodded. "Absolutely," she answered as she turned to look directly at Ash. "Who are you?" she asked adamantly, suppressing a low growl.

Ash looked back at her, acting as calm and as he could while keeping the Arceus facade. "I am Arceus, who else would I be?"

Giratina growled under her breath. She had to admit, his act was a _very_ good one, and if she didn't pay extremely close attention she could easily be fooled into thinking he was Father. She wondered what was going on. It was impossible for someone else to have Arceus' powers down to such a perfect imitation…but what if someone had stolen Arceus' power? When that human Zero had attacked her he had tried to take away all her powers and implant them into a machine, a process that almost killed her. What if the same thing had happened to Arceus, but instead of implanting them into a machine the thief implanted the power into himself? _'I need to convince Dialga and Palkia he's a fake!'_ Giratina thought to herself gravely, now feeling extremely worried over the God Pokémon's wellbeing. Beating up Palkia and Dialga could wait for now. _'What if what almost happened to me actually happened to Father?'_ The Renegade Pokémon asked herself uncertainly. Sure she had many arguments with him from time to time, but she still cared for him as he was basically a father for her. He had created her all those eons ago when existence came to be and she wouldn't abandon him.

"Giratina," Ash began. "This is going too far with your unfounded accusations."

"Really?" Giratina asked mockingly, giving a dark chuckle. "Really? I'm going to beat you senseless until you tell me, where is the real Father?"

Palkia turned to look a Giratina suspiciously. "Why do you think he's a fake? He seems as boring as usual," he asked. Ash sweatdropped.

Giratina shook her head sadly. "Of course a moron like you wouldn't notice the difference."

"Hey!" Palkia called to her, offended. He pointed an arm at her. "Don't call me tha- oww!" he cut himself off as the arm he used had several large injuries that were really starting to bother him. Giratina rolled her eyes. Dialga laughed happily at his misery.

"Ugh! Why can't I heal these damn injuries? I should be able to heal them in a second!" Palkia wondered in annoyance.

"Because I made sure to inflict the wounds and leave trails of my antimatter in them so you can't heal them as easily. Plus, remember that you're currently quite weakened," Giratina answered, then laughed mockingly at him. Palkia cursed, wondering why he hadn't done the same thing to her with his spatial powers, but then as Giratina had said, he was weakened, plus it didn't occur to him.

Palkia glared at Giratina, ignoring her answer regarding his wounds. "Answer the question."

Giratina stared at him blankly. "Already did."

The space dragon growled. "Not that one! Why do you think he's a fake?"

The Renegade Pokémon shrugged. "I've been observing him ever since we arrived here. He's been acting differently from what I know of Father, he's doubting himself in our presence, he doesn't make the same decisions he usually does, he doesn't fight the same way, he's…less intelligent, too," Giratina explained, eyes narrowing dangerously at Ash. "And I glanced into him, to his very soul. He's not Father."

"How convenient that only you would notice something," Palkia sneered, chuckling.

Dialga hummed. "Well, in her defense I just got here a little while ago so I haven't had any opportunities to notice anything, and Palkia, to be honest, you've been more focused on your problems with Giratina, so we haven't had time to analyze this as much as she has," she admitted, wondering if the ruler of the Reverse World was actually right.

Ash shook his head. "You are mistaken Giratina, your anger over recent events is leading you to make wrongful assumptions," he said level-headedly. _'I hope that sounded like a line Arceus would say.'_

"He's got a point there," Palkia conceded, then sighed at the situation. "Who's going to believe you, Miss Psycho Bitch? You've spent the last week hunting me and Dialga down madly."

Dialga looked between Ash and Giratina, a frown on her face. "I'm confused."

"So am I," Palkia muttered to himself, the pearls on his shoulders glowing slightly as he used his powers to check the spatial composition of Arceus and his powers. "He feels the same he's always been," he noted.

Giratina scowled, sensing what Palkia had done. "Father's powers are the same, it's the person he is now that's changed, somehow whoever he is has all of Father's traits, while being an entirely different being," she explained.

Ash sighed. "Giratina. I_ am_ Arceus, need I repeat myself?"

"No you aren't!" the dragoness snapped back.

"That sounds a bit contrived Giratina," Dialga commented, but before Giratina could make an angry retort, the time dragoness continued. "But, you get the benefit of doubt."

Ash shook his head. "Why would I be a different being? I'm the same Arceus as always, now please Giratina, you should go back to your world and take a rest, you're extremely angry right now and that is clouding your vision. Rethink this once you are calm. What's done is done, you and your world are fine, so you have no reason to bear a grudge against Dialga or Palkia," he said gently, imitating Arceus' tone. "Maybe once you calm down, you'll think clearly and your rage will quell."

Giratina snorted. "Not going to fool me, fake."

Palkia and Dialga sighed. "Giratina, you're sounding repetitive, can't you just let it go? There are enough problems and fighting between all three of us as it is, we really don't need more," Dialga suggested in a kind voice, implying that she really wanted this to end already.

"I'm pissed off beyond mortal comprehension! So shut it!" Giratina retorted angrily at her.

Palkia couldn't help nodding in agreement. "Giratina's got a point, when she's angry, she's _really _scary."

Giratina ignored the space dragon and kept her piercing glare focused on Ash. "I'll prove to these two idiots that you aren't Arceus."

Ash returned the look, finding it hard to actually keep eye contact with the intimidating Giratina. "I don't need to prove anything."

Giratina chuckled darkly. "No you don't, because _you can't_, simple as that," the ghostly Dragoness growled, a menacing air to her tone.

"Well what can we do? Ask questions only our Father could answer and see if he gets them right?" Palkia mumbled sarcastically.

Giratina rolled her eyes. "Pathetic mortal method."

Dialga laughed. "What are we going to do, ask him stuff like, out of the three of us, who was created first?" she questioned. "That won't work…" All three members of the Creation Dragon Trio suddenly paused and turned to look at Ash expectantly.

The teen-turned-God sighed and checked Arceus' leftover knowledge to see if the answer to that question was there. To his surprise, it was as if Arceus' body and powers were aware of it and provided him with the answer. Even if he still had no clue how the creation trio was created, he somehow found himself knowing the answer to Dialga's joke-question. "You three were born at the same time," Ash answered plainly.

"So, he has all of father's knowledge too? Then asking questions isn't going to work," Giratina noted, sighing as her mind raced to find any possible method she could use to prove this being was not their father.

Ash stared at the three dragons tiredly. "This is ridiculous."

Dialga shook her head. "No its not, as much as Giratina can be a bitch sometimes, if there is one thing she never does, its toy around and lie about important matters like what she's currently claiming. I want to clear this up too just to be on the safe side," she explained.

Giratina blinked in genuine surprise. Dialga was actually supporting her? The temporal Dragon apparently sensed Giratina's surprise and turned towards her and gave her a small smile. "Uh, thanks?" Giratina said awkwardly, but still grateful.

Ash felt himself surprised at the support Dialga was suddenly showing towards Giratina, and he even felt odd talking to the three Dragons. The last time he had met them he couldn't understand their natural Poké-speech, and even then they were only aiming to kill each other. Ironically, the one he felt he had bonded the most with was the one turning against him now, Giratina. Ash had saved her life from Zero, and in return when Zero's aircraft was shot down and he fell off the Reverse World's bizarre structures, Giratina had returned the favor and even let him ride on top of her head. _'I wonder, did Giratina just save me to repay the favor I did in helping free her and beat Zero, or did she actually do it out of genuine kindness towards me?' _

Palkia hummed, glancing at Ash and then at Dialga. "Hey Dialga, can you look into the future and see how this ends and who he is? Or look into his past and see what happened? I tried using space to see if there was something odd and I was unsuccessful, maybe you can succeed?"

Both Dialga and Giratina actually grinned at that. "Why didn't I think of that?" Giratina mumbled to herself.

Dialga sighed. "I feel more embarrassed myself for not suggesting that either…uh, thanks, Palkia," she said awkwardly, wondering if this was the first time in a _very _long time that she actually thanked Palkia for something. Even Palkia felt odd at receiving a grateful look from both dragonesses.

Dialga's eyes glowed as she focused her temporal powers around the quite alarmed Ash, as he had no idea how to block that. He let loose a small flare of divine power throughout his body, mentally pleading it to do something. Thankfully for Ash, Arceus' body reacted to his plight and raised several divine defenses that went unnoticed by the creation trio. Dialga found that she was somehow blocked from any event centering on Arceus, she couldn't see any past or future affairs regarding him and so couldn't find the immediate answer to their current dilemma. Seeing Dialga's frustrated look, Giratina sighed in dismay. "Didn't work, huh?"

"No, it didn't work…" Dialga answered sadly.

Palkia groaned. "And it was such a good idea…" he lamented miserably.

"Well, it was worth a try," Dialga commented, turning to look at Giratina. "Now what?"

Giratina's claws and wing-spikes began to crackle with bright white energy as she charged a customized Dragon Claw. "We beat the answer out of him," she stated coldly, causing a small pang of terror to run through Ash.

'_Calm down Ash, you're God now! You can surely fight her off…'_ Ash thought to himself, trying to reassure himself of being able to survive Giratina's onslaught. _'Wait, I'll try being nice despite her aggression, Arceus would surely do that!'_

"Uh, you sure about that?" Palkia asked uncertainly.

"Hell. Yes." Giratina answered, preparing to charge at Ash.

Ash tried to stand as firmly as he could before the Ghost and Dragon-type goddess. "Giratina, stop," he said firmly. "You're letting your anger take you too far. _Way_ too far. I know you are angry over Dialga and Palkia's fight, over your near death, over your unfounded speculations of me not being Arceus, but you still need to turn around and calm down. If you wish, I'll gladly spend time with you to help you get over this, I'll help you fix any problem with your home dimension and provide you some company if you desire. I'll be there for you," he said in a very soft and gently loving tone. _'From what I can see of Arceus' memory, that was very, as Mew would probably say, Arcyish. Now I hope they buy it…'_

That actually caused Giratina to stop in her tracks. She bit her lip slightly. _'Either I'm fucking up big time with this accusation or he's _really_ good at imitating Father…' _Giratina thought to herself. She knew well that no matter how bitchy or angry she got, Arceus would always be there for her, even if he did feel tired and sometimes maybe annoyed by her tantrums, he would never voice it and would always help her in whatever way he could. _'At least Father is very forgiving, if indeed he is Father and I am wrong… but, there's what I saw… when I looked at him, I could see it in his eyes… his soul, he is not Father… what's going on?' _ She righted herself quickly. "You're good at imitating Father," she told him.

"Giratina, what is it that you saw that assures you he isn't Father?" Palkia asked, stepping forward and glancing between Giratina and Ash.

The dragon goddess frowned. "Ever since we got here, Father's been acting… off. Call it nitpicking or just me being paranoid, but he's been acting weird and doing things that I know Father wouldn't do," she explained.

Dialga raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Small things, such as his wording, the way he looks at us, his reactions and acting to certain events…" Giratina answered. "Like I said, call it nitpicking but I _know_ Father wouldn't do that."

"Give an example," Dialga requested, her gaze still set firmly on the Renegade Pokémon.

"Before you got here, I attacked Palkia and he intervened, and yet I was able to trick him and land an attack on him," Giratina started and her eyes narrowed. "Father wouldn't let himself be hit so easily by such a basic strategy. And when Palkia dragged you here his gaze held fear for a few instants at the sight of all three of us, again, something Father wouldn't do."

"She has some valid points," Dialga admitted, turning and narrowing her gaze at Ash.

Giratina grinned. "And most importantly, when I gazed into his eyes before I made my claims of him being a fake, I know I saw it, within his soul, that he wasn't Father. I _know_ he isn't."

Ash sighed. "Giratina, why would you doubt me, your own creator?"

The Renegade Pokémon shook her head. "You are right, I wouldn't doubt Father in the least bit," she answered, then paused slightly. "The thing is, you _aren't _Father."

"This is starting to grow tiring," Ash grumbled, shaking his head. "And repetitive."

Dialga sighed quietly to herself, looking between Ash and Giratina before making up her mind. "I'm starting to believe Giratina… Father wouldn't have let this argument drag on so much, he would have ended it sooner, _a lot_ sooner," Dialga said. Giratina couldn't help but grin to herself.

Ash gave a small start after hearing Dialga's words. She doubted him too? This was bad. Realizing he needed to say something, he said the first thing he could think of to counter Dialga's comment. "You three are making it drag on."

Palkia shook his head. "I think he is Father, he created us and despite all the headaches we give him, he's always been there for us, we shouldn't doubt him."

"It's hard to prove him wrong," Giratina admitted. "He's got Father's voice, powers, apparently part of his knowledge, his manner of speech… nearly everything, and yet he's not Father."

"That does sound too convenient to be true," Dialga commented. "Are you really sure of what you claim Giratina? If he is Father… we'll be getting into serious trouble for his argument."

"Think of it carefully Giratina," Palkia said. "It's not as if we haven't gotten into serious trouble before. What's one more time?" Dialga was about to make a retort to that, but realized it was true and decided to keep quiet.

Giratina paused for a second, thinking over all of her claims to formulate a clear answer to that. "Oh shut up! I know what I'm sure of," Giratina exclaimed irefully.

Palkia glared at her. "No, she's not sure of it, she's just a crazy whiny dragon over this," he sneered.

Giratina returned the glare angrily and lunged at him with a Dragon Claw, using the spikes on her wings as claws to increase the damage of the attack. Palkia was slashed hard by the attack across his chest and near the neck, which left three large bloodied cuts in his armor. He clutched the new injuries in agony. "I'll get you for that when I recover from all this!" he said angrily with a pained groan.

Ash stared at all the injuries Palkia had plus the three new ones Giratina had inflicted on him and realized that all this time they had been arguing Palkia had been doing so while being heavily injured. _'He's got a really good pain tolerance to argue about this without minding about it too much, but still…'_ Ash thought to himself, feeling a bit sorry at seeing him in this condition. _'Wait, Palkia's the one that's supporting me the most while Dialga seems to have taken neutrality between me and Giratina while favoring Giratina slightly… I need to win Palkia's trust,'_ he realized, hoping that what he was about to do would work constructively for his cause, since if it didn't, it would add another nail to the hypothetical coffin Giratina was putting him in.

Giratina and Dialga watched in surprise as Ash walked closer towards the wounded Palkia. "Uh, what's he-" Dialga began, but was interrupted as Ash spoke to Palkia, still in a perfect mimic of Arceus' tone.

"Stand still Palkia," Ash said as Palkia stared at him in astonishment. Ash's golden wheel began to glow in a gentle gold light while the gems in it emitted light pulsations, and then Ash's entire body began to glow a godly white, sending small waves of power throughout the main room of the Hall Of Origin. All the lights concentrated on the wounded Palkia's body and surrounded him in a bright aura. All his injuries began to close and heal as his pain went away. Even the deep power-wound his pearl had suffered and the reason he was still weakened began to fade away.

"Of goodie, he's getting healed," Giratina said sarcastically. "A full-powered moron, whoopee…"

After a few seconds, all the lights receded, and Palkia was completely healed and back at full power, the way he had been before fighting Dialga. Ash grinned inwardly. _'Healing Palkia should get him to vouch for me being the real Arceus,'_ he said to himself. _'Hopefully.'_

Palkia smiled in appreciation while looking at Ash. "Thanks Father," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome Palkia," Ash responded.

Palkia eagerly turned to Giratina as he readied his space powers. An immense pink light filled his shoulder pearl as the glow enveloped his arm. "Now that I'm back to full power, it's payback time crazy psycho bitch!"

Giratina immediately dropped to a serious combat stance, her wing spikes ready as they began to be enveloped in dark energy. She knew full well Palkia was just as powerful as she was and that fighting him in his peak condition was a really tough challenge as opposed to the previous week, where he had been severely weakened and was easy pickings for the ghostly Dragoness. "Oh, I'll be more than happy to beat you up until you're worse than how you were before 'Father' healed you," she taunted, saying the word 'Father' as if it was laced with venom, seeing as she didn't believe Ash's claims of being Arceus.

Before Palkia could lunge at her, Ash did something that genuinely surprised Giratina. He stepped between them to stop the attack, but he wasn't facing her. "Palkia, stop now!" Ash bellowed, causing Palkia to stop in his tracks.

Palkia stared at him in surprise. "Uhh…"

Ash glared at him. "I didn't heal you just so you could get personal revenge on Giratina, I healed you so you would get better," he said firmly.

Palkia stood down, his powers fading. "All right…" he said unhappily. He would have loved to attack Giratina, but what Ash was saying was right and Palkia knew it.

Giratina growled slightly. _'That really sounded like something Father would do and say, but I think he took too long to heal Palkia. Father would have done it sooner… or later? I don't really know when he would have healed Palkia so I guess I can't use this against him… I'll need something else to prove him wrong…'_ she contemplated, talking to herself in her mind.

Dialga looked at Giratina's doubtful face and then back at Ash, having quite a good idea of what was crossing the Antimatter goddess' mind. "You know Giratina, even if he isn't Father he's not that bad," Dialga commented. "He's just as nice and kind. Either he is Father, or whoever is in his place is just as good. Maybe we can work something out with him peacefully."

'_Yes!'_ Ash cheered mentally. _'It's working!'_

"I still doubt him," Giratina said almost instantly. "And no, I don't do peaceful solutions."

Ash's hope train crashed. _'Darn!'_

"Why not?" Palkia asked curiously.

"You see, even if he's not that bad, think of it, what if he isn't Father and he's trying to deceive us into thinking he is?" Giratina questioned. "If he is evil and has Father's powers, he may be trying to trick us so we don't stop him and leave, then he can use them wrongly!"

Dialga closed her eyes. "True… we better clear this up…"

Ash sighed. "How can I prove to you that I am Arceus?"

Giratina chuckled darkly. "You can't prove it, you aren't him."

"Why don't you three go to your dimensions? This is getting very tiring," Ash suggested, hiding a hint of hope in his voice.

"I am not going to my Reverse World knowing there's a fake Arceus! And not without beating up Dialga and Palkia some more!" Giratina replied sternly. Dialga and Palkia glared at her, though she didn't pay attention to them.

Ash glared at her. "I order you to go back to the Reverse World."

Giratina ignored him and shrugged mockingly. "I'd obey Father, but you aren't Father, so no!"

Ash snapped and decided to try a different approach now, thought he admitted it was a dangerous one. "I am Arceus!" he bellowed angrily, stomping the ground, emitting a powerful shockwave of godly energy that managed to push the creation trio back in surprise.

Giratina stared angrily at him for a second before grinning savagely. "Prove it!" she bellowed. She opened her jaws as a large sphere of crimson fiery Aura gathered. With a yell, she fired the potent Aura Sphere at Ash. _'If he really_ is_ Father… I'm _SO_ fucked for doing this…' _

Her form blurred a bit as she disappeared with the use of Shadow Force. Ash stared at the incoming Aura Sphere and pondered his best course of action against it. Finally settling for something, his form began to glow as hooves, the pointy triangle in the tip of his head, and holy wheel began to change to a bright purple, his gray belly also adopting a darker purple color scheme. Ash had changed to a Ghost-type, all of it fast enough to pull it off before he was hit.

True to Ash's plan, Giratina's Aura Sphere was harmless as it phased through him. However he noticed Giratina was no longer near Dialga or Palkia. Spreading his senses and realizing he couldn't detect her, he knew she had used Shadow Force. Ash paused, waiting for the smallest detail which would give Giratina's position away. He paused slightly when he realized he was fighting as a Pokémon now, not a trainer, and felt oddly excited to try it out, even if the circumstances weren't the best. For some reason, he realized that he seemed to know all of Arceus' attacks and how to use them precisely, as if the knowledge had been there all along. He guessed it was due to him being the God Pokémon now. Resolutely he gathered up that knowledge to use to its fullest against Giratina's attack.

Ash sensed a presence behind him and immediately turned around as an orb of shadow energies gathered in front of him. He fired the tremendous Shadow Ball before Giratina could do anything. He watched as the attack collided and exploded forcefully against the Renegade Pokémon as she let out a cry of pain, feeling a small pang of guilt for having to attack her like that. _'Sorry…'_ He couldn't help but think.

Suddenly, the Giratina he had just attacked began to shimmer and vanish in a shower of black and purple sparkles. Ash's eyes widened as he remembered the last time he saw something similar happen, back when Shaymin was trying to escape Giratina. "Substitute…" he realized.

"Got you!" Giratina bellowed furiously as she suddenly appeared beside him, smashing into him with a full-power Shadow Force that sent Ash flying backwards, a pained moan escaping him as he skidded along the floor, the damage from Giratina's attack being greater because of his momentary Ghost-typing, which rendered him weak to attacks of the same type. "See! See! Palkia, Dialga, you two know Father very well, he wouldn't have fallen for such a simple attack combination! He would have easily seen my trick!" she yelled in affirmation almost instantly, turning towards the two bewildered Dragons.

Ash growled angrily. "Giratina! That was uncalled for, you're in trouble now!"

Dialga narrowed her eyes. "I think Father would be more pissed off after something like this… plus I heard his pained cry, it'd take much more for Father to be damaged like that…" she commented sharply, her tone laced with suspicion.

Palkia nodded in agreement. "Right, though Giratina, if he isn't Father how do you think whoever he is wound up in Father's place?" he asked.

"I have a small theory," Giratina began. "Not sure if it's true or not, but it's my best explanation."

"Well, let's hear it," Dialga encouraged, walking closer towards Giratina, her heavy metallic footsteps echoing loudly throughout the room.

"Well, remember how I was pissed off –and still am- about how I was almost killed? That happened when some stupid human obsessed with me, even so far as to wear some Giratina-themed costume-" Giratina began to explain, but was interrupted when Dialga and Palkia began to hold back laughs.

"My, my, you've got a fan for yourself," Palkia commented, one of his hands over his mouth to stifle laughter.

Giratina scoffed. "He tried to kill me! Anyway, he used a huge machine to capture me and drain my powers and life force into a smaller machine themed after me as well," she explained.

Dialga nodded. "I think I see where this is going."

The Renegade Pokémon nodded back somberly. "The only reason I was able to survive was thanks to the efforts of a group of humans that went to great length to fight Zero and his machines to rescue me." She smiled fondly. "Especially a boy with a Pikachu. Never got his name, but he was the most dedicated and nicest of the group that came to my rescue."

Ash blinked. _'Oh, so she does recognize me for it. That's something,'_ he thought. Ironically, Giratina didn't know the human she had bonded with, that had saved her life, and she had later saved herself was now standing before her.

Giratina focused her eyes on Ash. "But that's getting off topic. My fear is, what if a human tried to do the same to Arceus that was almost done to me? But this time whoever tried actually _succeeded_? But instead of implanting the powers into a machine, he got them _himself_, to the degree of having a body identical to Father's? He may be trying to trick us into thinking he is Father to later misuse his powers without us stopping him."

Dialga nodded again. "Yes, I was thinking along the same lines of your explanation."

"Sounds… oddly plausible," Palkia commented, pondering the matter carefully.

"Maybe," Dialga agreed. Both of the Time-Space Dragons turned to look at Ash intently.

Ash shook his head. "I am_ Arceus!_ how can a human, a mere mortal, steal _my_ powers? It's impossible!"

Giratina huffed. "I am freaking _Giratina_! Yet I'm bitching at you three here that it did nearly happen to me."

Dialga fidgeted guiltily. "Sorry, okay?"

"Not forgiving you," Giratina replied almost immediately. Dialga rolled her eyes.

"You three are terribly mistaken," Ash told them sternly.

"You stole Father's powers!" Giratina accused, walking forward ominously. An idea clicked into her mind, if she couldn't prove he was a fake, then she'd let him confess it himself. _'Time for a little word game,'_ Giratina thought, grinning.

"No I didn't, I am your Father!" Ash replied immediately.

"You are not!" Giratina said immediately. "You are just a little low-life mortal with incredibly stupid delusions of being a god!"

Ash was starting to get really pissed off. "No, I'm not a low-life mortal!"

Giratina laughed mockingly. "Yes you are, when I beat you I'll take great pleasure in torturing you until you tell me where Father is, you little pathetic crook!"

Ash growled. "Stop calling me that Giratina, I didn't steal Arceus' powers, how can I do that if I am Arceus to begin with?"

Giratina laughed mockingly and began to sing in a sarcastic manner. "Oh look at me, I am a little stupid mortal that stole Arceus' powers, now I am trying to trick three god dragons into thinking I'm the real deal haha! Think that will work on us, thief?" She said in a sing-song voice.

Ash's cheeks turned red from pure anger. "Stop that!"

Giratina laughed in a ridiculing way. "Stop what? Puny mortal, you are nothing but a little weak human, you are a scumbag just like Zero."

Ash was trembling from anger now. "Don't compare me to _him,_" he growled. He hated Zero for what he had almost done, killing a Pokémon as special as Giratina just for personal gain? That was something Ash had disapproved of severely.

Giratina shrugged. "Why not? You are the same as him, a pathetic human with delusions of godhood. You are no different than him, a simple pathetic _criminal_!"

Ash snapped at last. "HOW DARE YOU! I DIDN'T STEAL ARCEUS' POWERS, DAMMIT! HE GAVE THEM TO ME HIMSELF OF HIS OWN ACCORD ALRIGHT!" He bellowed angrily at the top of his voice. A few moments of silence passed as Ash realized what he had said. His eyes widened in the purest sensation of horror he had ever felt. "Oh… no… I did just _not_ say that…" He looked pleadingly at Giratina. By her dark smug grin, he guessed he had indeed said it.

Giratina chuckled ominously. "Gotcha."

Dialga walked beside Giratina. Her glare to Ash was as steely and dreadful as Giratina's. "So you were right all this time. Nice trick, Giratina."

Palkia walked on Giratina's other side, glaring at Ash just as dangerously as the two dragonesses. "Well, well… busted. Who better to prove that he wasn't Arceus than himself?"

Ash gulped. "Uh… I was lying?" he said weakly.

Giratina ignored what he had said. "You have less than one second to answer this question," the Renegade Pokémon began. "If you aren't Father, then where is he?" she asked, the dangerous tone in her voice making Ash shiver in fear.

Ash paused, wondering how to explain it. "Uhh… he's…"

"Of course he doesn't know where he is, he stole his powers," Dialga accused, following Giratina's trail of thoughts. "That idea sounds oddly plausible now."

"There's no point in trying to hide it, we know you aren't Arceus, so you better explain what happened to Father before we decide to kill you," Palkia said, eyes narrowed.

"You know? He's gonna lie, let's just rip him apart and figure out where Father is ourselves," Giratina suggested. "Or question him once he's all tortured and broken, it'll be easier to get answers that way. I'd like to do the torturing." Palkia and Dialga glanced at Giratina with a slightly sickened look.

The three members of the creation trio began to step closer to Ash, all their powers ready to strike at him. Ash stepped back. "Wait! Let me explain! Please!"

Dialga stopped and nodded towards the other two. To Ash's surprise, they decided to listen to her and stopped. "Go ahead, explain," Dialga said calmly, willing to give him a chance.

Ash sighed gratefully."Okay, Arceus was feeling very tired lately and decided to take a vacation. I am a human he summoned here and decided to exchange roles with. Right now I, the human, is in Arceus' body, and Arceus is in my original body, living my life as a human for a bit so he could get his mind off of godly stuff," Ash explained, now on his own natural voice. "Arceus is alright, really!"

All three of the creation trio stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "Liar! Father wouldn't take a vacation, it's not his kind of thing!" Palkia said immediately.

Dialga nodded in agreement. "And even so, Father wouldn't just give his powers to a simple Human! He'd choose a Legendary Pokémon!"

Giratina frowned, finding the new voice sort of…familiar. She quickly dismissed it as unimportant and went to the point. "Lies, that's not something Father would do."

Ash sighed. "You three don't know him all that well, then."

Palkia laughed. "And you say you do?"

"No," Ash admitted, shaking his head. "No I don't, it all came too suddenly for me. I assure you, I don't have any ill intentions with Arceus' powers. He gave them to me willingly, and if he wants them back I'll give them back without protesting in the slightest, I promise."

Giratina scoffed. "We're supposed to believe that, little thief? That Father gave you his power willingly? No. You stole it!" she shouted, her memories still tainted by the madman Zero.

"Oddly enough, I agree with Giratina," Palkia admitted.

"Arceus is fine! I swear!" Ash said immediately.

Giratina rolled her eyes. "Sure he is, you probably hurt him badly with stealing his powers, like Zero did to me! Maybe even worse…"

"Though, it is Father we're talking about here," Dialga muttered. "Think he'd let a simple human get the better of him?" She wondered.

"Humans can cook up some very nasty machines, I know firsthand," Giratina answered. "Maybe Father was coaxed or subdued in some way by this criminal?"

"I'd never do something that bad!" Ash told them, horrified at the thought of doing something like that.

Palkia chuckled slowly, pink energy gathering on his two shoulder pearls. "I suggest we beat him up to get some legit answers. If not, let's find Father and give him his powers back, and kill this scumbag for daring to steal and misuse Father's powers!"

Ash raised an eyebrow. "I healed you and now you want to beat me up? Considering you ran from Giratina, I'd think you'd be more peaceful."

Dialga chuckled. "To be honest, Palkia's the most temperamental, aggressive, thickheaded and battle-eager of the three of us."

"He didn't seem that way before," Ash commented.

"Being in a weakened state and having an angry Giratina chasing you for a week nonstop is a very exhausting experience," Palkia mumbled, suppressing a shiver at the thought of the deathly ghost Dragoness when she was pissed off.

Giratina growled. "Off topic!" she roared.

Dialga and Palkia turned to Ash, both of them sporting dangerous looks on their faces and returning to the matter at hand. Ash sensed a great power increase within them as they both readied their powers. "Oh uh… can't we talk this over?" Ash asked hopefully. "I'll do anything! I don't want to fight!"

Giratina shook her head, readying her own powers. "No."

Dialga grazed at Ash analytically. "Father is stronger than all three of us. Can we beat him if he has all of Father's powers?"

The Ghost/Dragon-type nodded. "Yes, he might have all of Father's powers, but he _doesn't_ have Father's knowledge, skill, ability or cunning. I just tested that, remember?"

Palkia nodded. "True. What good are all the powers you have if you don't know how to use them efficiently?"

Ash reluctantly began to focus his godly powers. He'd have to fight off the creation trio for now, and in the process think of how to convince them that he was telling the truth and that he would never hurt Arceus' magnificent creation nor the God Pokémon himself. "I don't want to do this, come on! I mean no harm! Arceus is okay! Really!" he tried one final time.

Palkia laughed. "Save your excuses, fake."

Dialga nodded in agreement. "Whatever you did to Father and why you have his powers, we'll soon find out, and make you pay for it!"

"I already told you!" Ash reminded her.

"That was a really crappy lie you know it," Dialga deadpanned. "A really bad one."

Giratina grinned darkly. "Sooner or later, you are going to fall. Any last words little fake?"

"Yes, it's not what it looks like! Really! You three are getting this all wrong!" Ash screamed at them pleadingly.

He got no further answer as Giratina opened her mouth, gathering a sphere of crimson fiery Aura in front of it. Ash's senses rang in alarm when he sensed the sheer amount of power Dialga and Palkia were gathering. Palkia's two shoulder pearls began to glow brightly, as did Dialga's chest diamond as they both prepared their signature moves, the devastating assaults know as Spatial Rend and Roar of Time. _'Oh no… Now I'm in for it!' _Ash thought helplessly as he pondered his chances against the entire creation trio…

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And with that Chapter 5 of Gods and Mortals comes to a close! I hope you all like it!** REVIEW** please! :D What'd ya think? Who got the worst nightmare? xD At least they only got nightmares, Ash is literally living one!


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